Tarnished Angels
by 2remember
Summary: A strange man takes residence at Kadic Academy, a harbinger of trouble that will draw the Lyoko Gang, and even XANA itself, from the the world they know into the dark, corrupt world of... Sin City!
1. Travel Broadens The Mind

Warning: Rated for language, violence and adult behavior.

The main characters of this story are based on characters from the cartoon 'Code Lyoko.' I do not own, nor do I claim, any copyright to these characters.

This story also uses characters from the graphic novel 'Sin City' by Frank Miller. I do not own, nor do I claim, any copyright to these characters.

This story also uses characters from the movie 'Wasabi', directed by Luc Besson. I do not own, nor do I claim, any copyright to these characters.

References to 'The Goon' in this story do not refer to the character of 'The Goon' by Eric Powell.

* * *

**Author's Note:**

This story takes place sometime during the second season of Code Lyoko. It is not related to my story, 'Stand' in any way or form.

This story also takes place before the events described in the Sin City story, 'The Hard Goodbye."

Lastly, this story takes place after the events of the movie 'Wasabi.'

* * *

The big man stood on the stern of the ship, watching the shoreline shrink away.

_I'm gonna miss the place,_ he thought to himself.

He had lived there all of his life, except for a few years spent in the military, and he had no illusions about it. Sin City was a hell hole, with more crime, poverty, sorrow, despair and perversion per square mile than any other city in the country.

But it was _his_ hell hole.

A couple of hours ago, he did something stupid. He Pissed Off The Wrong Person. Usually, he didn't care whether or not he offended someone, but in this case, he did. Not because he was afraid of retribution, though that was part of it. He wasn't afraid of anybody; most people were afraid of him, and rightly so. But there are a few people he respected, and it was one of them he offended. When he ran out that night, he didn't stop until he was safely on board the outbound freighter he was standing on, heading for France.

_Hopefully, putting a continent and an ocean between us will be enough, _he thought, _I don't think she's _that_ upset. Of course, I didn't hang around long enough to find out._

The shore line of Basin City finally disappeared into the night. Marv turned and walked back to his bunk. Later on, he would have to help the other hands with the evening chores, and otherwise work his passage to France.

_Well, they say that travel broadens the mind,_ Marv thought,_ I hope this trip is a little more enlightening than the last one I took._

_

* * *

_

"Yumi, what are you doing? It's time to go to bed!" Mrs. Ishiyama yelled down at the girl.

"I'm on the computer, mom!"

"Well, wrap it up! It's a School Night, you know!"

"Oh-kaay!"

Yumi was sitting at the computer in the family room, chatting with a friend on the Internet Go Server. The two had just finished a game, which Yumi won, and were talking about life in general.

_longbow14: so, what's up? You haven't been on in a couple of days._

_guardangel: nothing. Work, mostly. Been bummed out the last coupla days._

_longbow14: what happened?_

_guardangel: something stupid. I had a misunderstanding with a friend, and now he's gone._

_longbow14: boyfriend? ;-)_

_guardangel: no, nothing like that. He is a good friend, though. Helps out around here. I really overreacted about something the other night and he took it the wrong way._

_longbow14: go apologize..._

_guardangel: wish I could. He's gone, outta town. Outta the country, I heard._

_longbow14: what did you do?_

_guardangel: tried to kill him..._

_longbow14?_

_guardangel: ;-)_

_longbow14: oh... Look, girlfriend, I gotta logoff, mom's getting on my case... 'night!_

_guardangel: 'afternoon, here anyway!_

Yumi Ishiyama, a.k.a. longbow14, logged off IGS and went to bed. She really liked chatting with guardangel, all the way over in America. She was a good go player, and a challenge to beat. She remembered the picture guardangel sent her months ago, showing a pretty oriental girl leaning against a rock somewhere, wearing a yellow sun dress, smiling for the camera and at life. Miho, the caption said, Miho was guardangel's real name. It was interesting hearing about her exciting life in the United States, working as an entertainer. Yumi almost wished she could travel to Basin City one day and see her friend perform. As she settled down for the night, Yumi thought, _she's such a sweet girl, I wonder what that jerk did to her?_

On the other side of the world, in Basin City, Washington, Miho, a.k.a. guardangel. logged off her IGS session. She liked chatting with longbow14, all the way over in France. She was a good go player and a challenge to play. She looked up at a picture pinned to her wall above her monitor of a pretty young Japanese girl, standing there with her four friends. Yumi, the girl had written on the picture and drawn an arrow to her. Longbow14's name was Yumi Ishiyama. It was interesting hearing all of the mundane things the girl did, things that Miho never got a chance to do. _If only she knew how really good she had it,_ Miho thought to herself.

She got up, stripped off her clothes and showered. When she finished, she dressed in a dark kimono, then got her 'tools': her bow and arrows, her two swords, her knives and throwing stars. She turned out the lights of her apartment, and left.

_I hope it's quiet, tonight; well, not too quiet,_ the girl thought as she skated into Old Town, _I don't want to get out of practice. I wonder what happened to Marv, anyway? I need to find him and apologize somehow; I really overreacted the other day._


	2. The Goon

Warning: Rated for language, violence and adult behavior.

The main characters of this story are based on characters from the cartoon 'Code Lyoko.' I do not own, nor do I claim, any copyright to these characters.

This story also uses characters from the graphic novel 'Sin City' by Frank Miller. I do not own, nor do I claim, any copyright to these characters.

This story also uses characters from the movie 'Wasabi', directed by Luc Besson. I do not own, nor do I claim, any copyright to these characters.

References to 'The Goon' in this story do not refer to the character of 'The Goon' by Eric Powell.

* * *

He awoke to the sounds of the alarm clock ringing and the radio playing. He growled, sat up and shut the alarm off. He got up, knocking over some empty beer bottles from last night, and shuffled into the bathroom. There, he relieved himself, showered, then shaved. The razor seemed tiny, almost microscopic in his massive hand. He looked at his face in the mirror and evaluated his work. It was a maze of scars from years of brawls and worse. But even the scars didn't cover the basic ugliness of the man. He was a misanthrope, a monster, designed to frighten, hurt and maim, and like all three.

And he was running loose in a boarding school, of all places.

Marv stared at his reflection a moment longer, steeling himself for the tedious day ahead. He then opened the medicine cabinet, took out a prescription bottle, and took two of the capsules inside. If he trusted the water, he would have washed the meds down with some, but he didn't. He walked out of the bathroom, and dressed for the day. They were supposed to be planting trees along side the athletic field today, oh joy.

"Now, why don't these Frogs speak English like everybody else does," he said as he turned off the radio and left for the day.

* * *

"Have you seen The Goon yet?" Tamiya Diop asked her friend Milly Solovieff, "I heard Jim fed him a couple of seniors last night!"

Milly's eyes got wide at her friend's statement. "No!" was her astonished reply.

"Yeah! I hear he chops them up into hamburger, drinks their blood and eats them raw! Then he grinds their bones up and uses them to fertilize the trees they've been planting. That's why the principal is planting so many of them, so The Goon has a place to put all of the bones."

The two girls were sitting on a bench in the courtyard of Kadic Academy, the boarding school they attended. It was a bright spring afternoon, and classes had just let out for the day. The two sixth graders were relaxing and unwinding by telling scary stories.

The girls' conversation was suddenly interrupted by the arrival of three older students, two boys and a girl. The dark haired girl had been listening to their conversation and decided to have a little fun. She had her two henchmen run off and do something while she waited. When they returned, saying their task was completed, the girl approached them.

"You know, I've heard the _real_ reason The Goon is here," said the girl, Sissi Delmas, "I heard that he's on the run from the law. That he killed and butchered sixty people in London a month ago, then came down here to hide. I heard when he killed all those people, he cut their heads off and brought them with him, and he's been burying them under all of the trees they've been planting."

The two little girls sat mesmerized as Sissi spun her tale.

"I've also heard," Sissi said in a lower voice, "that the heads he still has aren't dead yet. They still chatter and talk at night. I heard he's looking for something to keep them quiet until he buries them. I heard he's looking for... a teddy bear!"

Sissi emphasized "teddy bear" and the two girls squealed in fear. Sissi smiled, knowing she had her marks firmly in her grip.

"Say, Milly," Sissi said, "you've got a teddy bear still, don't you? Do you know where it is? The reason I'm asking is I saw The Goon prowling around the dorms, and I'm not sure, but I think I saw him go into your room earlier."

Milly's eyes got wide with fright. She jumped up and ran to her room, Tamiya right behind her. Sissi waited until the count of five, the set out after them, her friends Hervé Pinchon and Nicholas Poliakoff in tow.

When the teens arrived at the sixth grader's room, they saw Milly frantically tearing the room apart, looking for her teddy bear. What the girl didn't know what Sissi had Hervé and Nicholas sneak up here and steal it before Sissi started her tale. Now that Part One of her scheme worked, it was time to implement Part Two.

"Oh No! Did he take it?" the girl said with mock sincerity, "that scoundrel! Well, you'll just have to get it back now, won't you!"

"No!" Milly shouted back, "I'm going to the principal! He'll get my teddy back and fix The Goon real good!"

"Daddy can't do anything, I'm afraid," Sissi said, "The Goon said if Daddy didn't let him stay and do what he wanted to, he was going to chop the heads off all the little girls in the school. Daddy didn't want that on his conscience, so he gave in. He told all of the adults to leave The Goon alone too, so he wouldn't hurt the little girls."

Sissi smiled, knowing the fact she was the principal's daughter lent credence to her tale.

Milly started to cry. "What am I going to do! I have to get my teddy back!"

"Maybe I can help," Sissi said, moving from Part Two to Part Three, "you can sneak into his room and get your teddy bear back. Then you can put it where it will be safe from The Goon."

"But I can't do that!" Milly shrieked, "he stays in that cabin next to the woods, away from everything! If he caught me, no one would ever know it!"

"That's where I come in," Sissi said, "me and Hervé and Nicholas will go with you and watch your back. If he comes back, we'll let you know so you can get out or hide."

"Why would you do all this, Sissi," piped in Tamiya, who had been silently listening the whole time, "you've never really liked us, so why go out of your way?"

"Because," the older girl replied, "I had a teddy bear once, too. And I loved it more than anything in the world. It broke my heart when I lost it. I don't want that kind of loss to happen to anyone else, that's all."

The final hook was set. Milly said, "okay, I'll do it."

"Good," Sissi said, smiling.

* * *

Sissi's conversation with Milly and Tamiya in their dorm room was overheard by others, a blond headed boy wearing glasses and a pink haired girl.

"It sounds like Sissi is up to mischief again," Jeremie Belpois told his friend Aelita Stones.

"Why does she do those kind of things anyway," Aelita replied, "it just seems so spiteful, teasing those two that way."

"Well, that's Sissi," Jeremie replied, "sometimes she just likes to pick on kids littler than her."

"Well, I think we ought to do something about it," she replied.

"What?"

"Well, first thing," Aelita said, "I'm going to talk to The Goon."

* * *

Marv was drenched in sweat. They had managed to plant eight trees today. He had done harder things in his life, but the plants were heavy and hard to move about, and they had to be placed just so. Still, it beat killing someone, or getting killed.

Marv sat on one of the benches on the athletic field, drinking a soda. What he really wanted was a beer, but he knew that alcohol on the campus was prohibited. Mr. Delmas was doing him a favor, giving him a place to stay and work, and for looking the other way when he drank in his room, so he didn't want to offend the man. You don't accept a man's hospitality then piss on his feet.

He looked up and saw one of the students approach. She was a cute little thing with pink hair. Marv wondered how much she paid to have that done, but set that aside. The girl stopped a few feet away, as if uncertain as to whether or not to get any closer. He smiled a toothy smile at her, causing her to startle and take a step back. He suppressed the urge to laugh.

"Ah... sir? C-could I speak to you, please?" the girl said in halting English.

"Sure, shoot," Marv replied.

The girl gulped. "I, I, heard that you liked teddy bears."

Marv did laugh now. "I like a lot of things, Pinkie, so what?"

"Aelita," she replied.

"Huh?"

"Aelita. My name is Aelita," the girl said.

"Marv," he replied, "please ta meet ya." He held out his massive hand, and the girl timidly extended her own. His mitt closed over hers, and he gently shook it twice, then let go.

"Now, what's this about teddy bears? You lose one?"

"No," Aelita replied, visibly relieved at surviving so far, "but a friend of mine has. I heard that you took it."

"Well now, that's a serious accusation," Marv said, "I won't say I haven't come across a few things in my day that didn't start out as mine, but I don't remember stealing a teddy bear today. Besides, you can't get much for a teddy bear at a fence."

"A fence?" the girl asked, bewildered.

"Never mind," he replied, "why don't we just cut to the chase? Why don't you tell me what you think is going on, and I'll tell you if you're right."

Aelita quickly told the story she hear Sissi tell. When she finished, Marv laughed again.

"You kids are somethin' else!" he said, "I've got more sense that that! Bringing heads with me here! That's stupid! If you're gonna dispose of a body, you put it somewhere where they'll never find it as fast as you can! Drag it with you! That's the fastest way to Ol' Sparky I ever heard of!"

Aelita's eyes got wide. He was actually talking like he knew about getting rid of dead bodies! The man grinned at her.

"She's pulling those little girls' legs," he said, "she'll probably have them go into my place and rummage around, then make some noises like I'm coming back, then scare the crap out of them."

"That's what I thought," Aelita said, "I wish there was some way I could fix Sissi for this. Milly deserves better that what she's getting."

Marv, The Goon, smiled an ugly smile. "Maybe we can. Why don't you go get your friend Milly, and let's talk."

* * *

A man stood just outside the gates of Kadic Academy, taking pictures. He seemed to be photographing all around, but if one watched closely, they would see that he was primarily photographing inside the school grounds.

Through the lens of the camera, the man focused on the two girls that were walking away from the ugly giant of a man. The man pressed the shutter, and the camera started recording shot after shot of the girls as they left. The man stopped, looked around some more, then took more pictures.


	3. Fee, Fie, Fo, Fum

Warning: Rated for language, violence and adult behavior.

The main characters of this story are based on characters from the cartoon 'Code Lyoko.' I do not own, nor do I claim, any copyright to these characters.

This story also uses characters from the graphic novel 'Sin City' by Frank Miller. I do not own, nor do I claim, any copyright to these characters.

This story also uses characters from the movie 'Wasabi', directed by Luc Besson. I do not own, nor do I claim, any copyright to these characters.

References to 'The Goon' in this story do not refer to the character of 'The Goon' by Eric Powell.

* * *

Milly almost wet herself when Aelita took her to The Goon. She introduced the frightened girl to Marv, then told her what was going on. Milly almost had a hissy fit when she heard about Sissi's cruel joke, but quieted down when Marv told her what he had in mind.

The girl walked away from the conversation with a smile on her face, confident that Sissi would get hers real soon. Aelita walked away a little concerned. Marv said he'd have a little fun with the kids, and wouldn't hurt them _too much._ he smiled when he said it, but something in that smile made Aelita shudder, like he wouldn't have a problem with hurting them at all, and maybe a lot more than too much.

Marv watch the girls walk off. He had to remind himself that these were kids, and good kids for the most part. Yeah, he would scare the shit out of Sissi and her friends, but not much more than that.

_Sissi may be spiteful, but she's still a good kid,_ Marv thought, _I gotta keep in mind that what these kids here think as evil is no where near the neighborhood of real Evil. Hell, none of them would know what real evil it was if it stared them in the face. If they did, they would have never let me in the gates._

_

* * *

_

That evening, after curfew, Sissi, Hervé and Nicholas met Milly and Tamiya in the woods close to the cabin where The Goon lived.

"The light's out inside, so he must be out looking for fresh victims," Sissi whispered to the girls. Behind her, Hervé and Nicholas barely suppressed their laughter. Sissi's plan was working perfectly so far.

"Now, all you have to do is get inside and find your teddy bear," she continued, "hopefully, he hasn't given it to the heads yet."

The two little girls shuddered at Sissi's remark.

"Don'... don't we get a flashlight or something?" Tamiya asked.

"No, you don't want The Goon to know you're in there if he comes back, now do you?" Sissi replied, "now get going! He'll be back soon!"

With that, Sissi shooed the two hapless girls towards the cabin. After they left, she snickered.

"This is gonna be real fun!"

* * *

"Milly, I'm scared," Tamiya said as they got to the cabin door.

"Don't worry," Milly whispered, "it's just one of Sissi's stupid tricks, but this time we're going to get one over on her."

The two girls got to the cabin door, and Milly tried opening it. It wasn't locked, so the door immediately opened for her. They carefully crept inside.

The room was dark, but Tamiya could make out the form of a large man sitting on the floor, The Goon. She was about to scream when Milly's hand covered her mouth.

"It's okay! He's a friend!" Milly told the girl.

The Goon waived the girls over to him. Next to where he sat was three bundles. The girls tried to make out what they were but couldn't. The Goon had them sit next to him.

"Okay, now be real quiet for a couple of minutes, to give them the impression you're rummaging around," he said.

The all sat in silence for a while. Then The Goon whispered, "okay, on the count of three, scream as loud as you can, then shut up. Don't say another word, okay?"

The girls nodded in agreement. He raised one of his huge hands, then held up a finger, then another finger, and finally a third. That was their signal.

Milly and Tamiya screamed their lungs out.

The Goon jumped up and roared, causing the girls to scream again, then stop, because he told them to be quiet after they screamed the first time.

The Goon ran about the room, jostling things, hollering and screaming the whole time, like he was chasing two little girls around his room. He then ran over, picked up two of the bundles he had laying there, went to the door and threw them outside.

"There! You've joined my collection now and you won't need those any more!"

He closed the door, walked back over to the girls, who were grinning from ear to ear. He picked up the last bundle, a sack, and returned to the door.

"You two stay here for about two minutes, then sneak out and get the principal," The Goon told the girls, "I'm willing to bet he'd just love to know what his daughter does after curfew."

* * *

Sissi, Hervé and Nicholas were watching from the bushes as their marks entered the cabin. The plan was for them to wait a few minutes, then start making noises around the cabin. When the girls ran out, they would chase them through the woods, then leave them there. It would probably be morning before the dared show their faces!

Just when the three conspirators were about to implement their scheme, Milly and Tamiya screamed inside the cabin. There was a roar, and the girls screamed again. The three teens were shocked, they thought The Goon was gone!

Now they saw a large dark figure dart about in the cabin, tearing the place apart. Then, silence. After a moment, the door opened and two objects flew out.

"There! You've joined my collection now and you won't need those any more!"

Sissi and crew stared at the objects laying on the ground. She couldn't quite make it out, but the shapes looked familiar. Then, her imagination filled in the details her mind couldn't. The objects were bodies, two bodies.

Two, headless, bodies.

"Oh my gosh! He killed them!" Sissi exclaimed, "he really is a killer!"

Then the door opened again, and The Goon stepped out. Over his shoulder he had slung a bag; a big, lumpy bag.

"Great," he said to no one in particular, "two more added to my collection and still no teddy bear! I guess I'm going to have to find something else to keep the heads company. Hmm, maybe a teenager. Yeah! A teenage girl! That way, the heads can jabber and smooch and tickle her and stay out of my hair 'til I bury them. Why didn't I think of that in the first place! Now, where to find one?"

He jiggled the bag he was carrying, and noises started coming from it. Voices.

"Arrgh! Stop that! Help Me!"

"Move your lips! Hey! Ow!"

"Shut up back there, you lot!" The Goon said to whatever was in the bag.

Sissi realized that he actually had talking heads in that bag! She let out a little gasp, and The Goon stopped. Sissi, Hervé and Nicholas all put their hands over Sissi's mouth to quiet her. The Goon slowly panned his head, looking for something. Then he shrugged and walked off.

"We've got to get out of here!" Hervé said.

"Right, let's go!" Sissi said and ran off. Hervé and Nicholas looked at each other for a moment, then took off after her.

The two boys had just caught up with Sissi when The Goon jumped out from behind some brush.

"AH HAH! I thought I smelled a teenage girl around here someplace!" The Goon roared, "now, missy, you'll keep my heads company, and your friends will be joining my collection!"

With that, The Goon jumped to scoop the three up. They all screamed and turned and ran back the way they came. The Goon ran in pursuit.

"Fee, Fie, Fo, Fum! I smell the blood of three French ones! One to keep my collection quiet! And two fresh ones to add to the riot!" The Goon laughed at his rhyme as he chased the kids.

Sissi and company found themselves back at The Goon's cabin. The Goon ran up, dropped his bag, then approached them, arms spread wide to snag them if they tried to run past.

"Yum, Yum! Eat 'Em Up!" he growled, a huge grin on his face.

Totally frightened now, Sissi grabbed Hervé and pulled him to her, hoping that maybe he could somehow save her life. The boy just gibbered in fear like the rest of them.

"Now, little missy, I'll just pop your arms and legs off, then pop your little friend's heads off. Add a little magic, and they'll be good company for you, just like those little girls I found earlier. Right girls!"

"Oh Mr. Goon, please let us go!" came Milly's voice from the bag, "we were only looking for my teddy bear! We would have never come if someone hadn't told us you took it from my room! Please let us go to Heaven now!"

"Such a shame," said The Goon as he approached the doomed teenagers, "none of this would have happened if someone hadn't told them I stole their teddy bear."

He reached out to grab Sissi.

"WAIT!" she hollered, "I TOLD THEM! I said Milly's teddy bear was in your cabin, but I had them steal it! Please please please don't kill me! I swear I'll make up for it! I'll do anything you ask! Please don't kill me!"

The Goon stopped and looked at his victims.

"Good enough?" he asked.

"Yeah Marv, that was real good!" came Milly's voice, from both the bag, and from some bushes close to the cabin. The trio looked, and Milly and Tamiya stood up, with huge grins on their faces. Milly had what looked like a walkie-talkie in her hand.

"You! You tricked me!" Sissi hollered, "when I get my hands on you, I'll..."

"You'll do what, Elizabeth?" came a new voice.

Sissi turned and saw the last person on earth she wanted to see at that moment, her father, Jean-Pierre Delmas, the principal.

"Daddy! The Goon just tried to kill us! He's got heads in that bag, and..."

"This bag?" The Goon said as he upended it.

Sissi and her friends screamed when the contents fell out. Soccer balls. Also, a radio fell out.

"Elizabeth, I heard the whole thing," Mr. Delmas said, "Jim is checking your room right now for Miss Solovieff's bear. Oh, and here he is now."

Jim Moralés, the gym teacher, walked up to the group, holding a teddy bear in his hands.

"It was right where you said it would be, sir," Jim said, "she didn't even try to hide it."

Jim walked over and handed the teddy bear back to Milly, who hugged it tight to her chest.

"I can't believe that those two _babies_ were able to set this up," Sissi said.

"They didn't," The Goon, Marv, replied, "I helped a lot. And a few others."

He put his fingers in his mouth and whistled. From some bushes behind Milly and Tamiya, five figures stood up, two girls and three boys. Sissi recognized them all, Ulrich Stern and his friends, Odd Della Robbia, Jeremie Belpois, Aelita Stones, and the bane of Sissi's existence, Yumi Ishiyama.

Aelita smiled sweetly at Sissi and waived. Odd held up a camera and started taking pictures. The others just stood there and smiled.

"These ought to be great for the yearbook, don't ya think?" he said as he snapped away.

"Elizabeth, you are in serious trouble," her father said, "I have no choice but to suspend you for a month. You are to remain in your room except for showering and meals. You will have your homework brought to you, and I'll personally be overseeing your studies."

Sissi Delmas looked like she was about ready to cry.

"Mr. Delmas, sir," Marv said, "aren't you being a little harsh? I mean, yeah she did a mean thing, but she's been paid back for the most part. You don't really have to rub salt in the wound, so to speak."

"What do you mean, Marvin?" the principal asked.

"Well, they got caught in a lie and got the crap fairly well scared out of them because of it. Also, it's a beautiful, clear night, without a cloud in the sky. So why are those three standing in puddles?"

Everybody looked, and sure enough, Sissi, Hervé and Nicholas were all standing in small puddles of something that wasn't water.

All of the other kids started laughing. Jim didn't, but it took all of his control to keep the smile off his face. Principal Delmas didn't even crack a smile, but you could see a glimmer of laughter in his eyes.

"The way I look at it," Marv continued, "I'm the only one here aggrieved by this crew that hasn't gotten payback yet. And, your daughter said she would do anything if I wouldn't harm her. Well, I haven't, and I think I'll take her up on her offer."

"What do you have in mind," the principal asked.

Marv just smiled.

* * *

Sissi sat back on her heels, exhausted. Her hands were raw, her knees ached and her back was killing her from all the crawling she was doing. She looked around her at what little she accomplished so far, and what she had yet to do.

"Don't take too long darlin', you've got a long way to go yet," Marv told the girl as He offered her a water bottle. She shot him the Evil Eye of Death, but took a swig from the bottle anyway. Even though it wasn't cold, it was soothing and refreshing going down.

As punishment for their little prank, Sissi, Hervé and Nicholas had to pull up every weed on the athletic field by hand. They were restricted to their rooms until they had completed their penance.

Every day after class, they had to dress out in their gym clothes, report to Marv on the athletic field, and get to work. Marv would stand over them, watching their progress. If any of them missed a weed, he would make them go back and pull it. He said he even spoke to Mrs. Hertz, the science teacher, and made sure which plants were weeds and which ones were not.

They pulled weeds until just about after dinner. They were almost always the last ones served.

It took about a month for Sissi and her henchmen to finish their punishment. The entire time, Sissi Delmas swore she would find some way to get her revenge.


	4. Homesick

Warning: Rated for language, violence and adult behavior.

The main characters of this story are based on characters from the cartoon 'Code Lyoko.' I do not own, nor do I claim, any copyright to these characters.

This story also uses characters from the graphic novel 'Sin City' by Frank Miller. I do not own, nor do I claim, any copyright to these characters.

This story also uses characters from the movie 'Wasabi', directed by Luc Besson. I do not own, nor do I claim, any copyright to these characters.

References to 'The Goon' in this story do not refer to the character of 'The Goon' by Eric Powell.

* * *

Marv sat at the bar next to the stage and enjoyed the show. Every now and then, the girl would strut over, bump and grind for Marv alone, it seemed, then move on. Before she went down the line, Marv put a ten euro note in her garter, which was blooming with bills.

Since he arrived in France, Marv would go out in the evenings and sample the Paris nightlife. The places he frequented were some of the more seedy spots in the city. The place he was in tonight reminded him of Kadie's, back home in Sin City. The customers were a rough and tumble crowd, like the people he knew there. The girls were enthusiastic, as evidenced by the girl on stage tonight, and they had an air of confidence that said _they were in control_. Just like home, but not quite.

Marv's luck held true to form tonight; none of the girls approached him for a trick. He sighed, hoping that someone would look past his ugly visage and at least spend some time with him.

_Like Nancy,_ he thought to himself.

* * *

Nancy Callahan was a girl who danced at Marv's favorite club, Kadie's, back home. As far as Marv knew, she wasn't a prostitute; she didn't sleep with the customers. Nancy would just dance on stage and strut her stuff, and make every dick in the place stand up and beg for relief. Marv noted that on more than one occasion, Nancy aroused that same sentiment in quite a few women in the club.

If there was anyone that Marv wanted to be with, it was Nancy. She was not only brassy and flirtatious on the stage, she was sweet and friendly off the stage, too. Whenever Marv was in the club, she would come by and talk with him after her set, and buy her own drinks. Nancy never talked with any of the other mooks, just him. It made Marv feel special, even though Nancy made it clear she wasn't interested in Marv in _that_ way. Marv was heartbroken, but understood.

He remembered one time a few months back when Nancy asked him for a favor. Some guy from school had been following her around and pestering her. He had even followed her into Old Town one night, and sat at the bar while she performed. It wasn't that she disliked the guy, she just didn't like him in that way. And he was starting to get insistent, very insistent.

Nancy asked Marv to have a talk with the guy. Gail had already said that if the prick showed his face in Old Town again, Miho would take care of him, but Nancy didn't want things to go quite _that_ far.

So she asked Marv if he would have a talk with the boy. Don't kill him, don't hurt him too much, but make sure he got the message that she wasn't interested. Marv smiled and said, sure, no problemo.

Before he left that night, Marv had a quick word with Miho. Then he set out after the erstwhile suitor.

It didn't take long to find him, either. He was in the bushes outside of Nancy's place, watching her get ready for bed. He was beating himself off watching the scene when Marv found him.

Marv kept his promise, he didn't hurt the boy too much. He didn't have to, really. The kid pissed and shit himself as soon as he grabbed him. Marv growled at the cleaner's bill he now had, but set about his work. One punch to the solar plexus shut the kid up, and Marv dragged him, with his pants still down around his ankles, and threw him in the trunk of his car.

He drove to the spot where he arranged to meet Miho. There wasn't a night that went by that Miho didn't have to kill someone for crossing the girls of Old Town, and that night was no exception.

Nancy's suitor was still crying when Marv pulled him out of the trunk. He dragged the kid over to where Miho and Gail were standing over a man who was trussed up like a Christmas turkey, cussing the lights out.

"Kid," Marv told the boy, "Nancy has told you several times she wasn't interested. Now you've gone and scared her, and her friends don't like her being scared. You're getting off lucky tonight, but only because Nancy wanted it that way. Here's what's gonna happen to you if you ever come sniffing around her again."

Miho picked up the man by the hair. He was still cursing, saying how he would "mess you bitches up when I get loose."

Miho sliced his head off. She didn't cut it, she didn't chop it. She sliced it, slowly. The man screamed as she started, then gurgled after she cut through his windpipe, then was silent after she cut through the arteries in his neck. When she had the head completely severed, she held it up, so the boy could see just what his fate would be next time. Miho then threw the head aside, and proceeded to cut up the rest of the body. The kid vomited up everything in his stomach. Marv made the boy watch the whole thing.

When Miho was done, Gail spoke up, "maybe it's because you're young, or not from around here, but let me make things perfectly clear to you. _No one_ messes with The Girls Of Old Town. This is what happens when you do. Nancy is one of _us_, and if we ever see you around her again, there won't be enough of you left to bury."

* * *

Marv was pulled out of his reverie by the applause and whoops of the patrons as the girl's set finished. He shook his head, then clapped and whooped with the rest of them. The girl had done a real good job tonight.

Marv left a tip for the waitress and left, retuning to his cabin at Kadic Academy. His last thoughts before he slept that night was, _it's nice here, but it's not Home. I wish I were back home._


	5. Marv, Meet XANA

Warning: Rated for language, violence and adult behavior.

The main characters of this story are based on characters from the cartoon 'Code Lyoko.' I do not own, nor do I claim, any copyright to these characters.

This story also uses characters from the graphic novel 'Sin City' by Frank Miller. I do not own, nor do I claim, any copyright to these characters.

This story also uses characters from the movie 'Wasabi', directed by Luc Besson. I do not own, nor do I claim, any copyright to these characters.

References to 'The Goon' in this story do not refer to the character of 'The Goon' by Eric Powell.

* * *

"Marv, the reason more people don't like you is because you don't talk to them," Aelita told the hulking man. They were sitting on a bench at the athletic field, watching Sissi, Herve and Nicholas pull weeds.

"The reason most people don't talk to me is because I'm so ugly, Pinkie," Marv replied.

Aelita grimaced at her new nickname, but continued, "but look at the people who have talked to you, me, Milly and Tamiya, Principal Delmas, Mrs. Hertz..."

"Look, I've only talked to Mr. Delmas and Mrs. Hertz in passing, as the job required it," Marv said, "and you kids just don't know any better. And when I say ugly, I don't just mean my mug."

"I guess I don't understand then," Aelita said.

"And that's one of the things I like about you, Aelita," Marv replied, "you really don't understand. Now, how's things coming along with that boyfriend of yours?"

Aelita blushed and the conversation continued.

* * *

As Aelita was talking to her new friend, XANA activated a tower in Lyoko. It extended its probes out, looking for something to use to pull Aelita into its grasp. It spotted its target, sitting on a bench and talking to an new individual, one XANA had never seen before. It examined the new specimen as closely as it could, and what it saw was impressive. If the individual were closer to an access point, XANA would have used him as its tool, especially since its target was sitting right next to him. Unfortunately, they both were too far away from an electrical source for XANA to attack.

XANA searched about for another tool to use, one close enough to intercept its target, and close enough to take control of. It quickly found its tool, a familiar one.

Jim Moralés was walking out of his workout room in the basement, when a black cloud emanated from an electrical socket. It enveloped the gym teacher, taking him over. The XANA-fied Jim turned to the athletic field and smiled. There would be no problems securing the target now.

Aelita and Marv were still talking when Jim walked up. Aelita was only able to say, "hi, Jim," when Jim fired an electrical burst from his hand, stunning the girl. The last thing she heard before she passed out was Marv shouting, "what the hell!"

XANA/Jim was bending over to retrieve the unconscious girl, when Marv grabbed Jim's arm. Jim turned and punched Marv in the face, then got the surprise of his/its life when pain shot up the fist he used, shot up both the man's arm and the ghost's form.

Marv just smiled, an ugly smile. "Well now, why didn't you tell me you wanted to play, Jimbo?"

With that, Marv pulled his massive fist back and punched Jim in the face. Jim was launched into the air, and landed eight feet away from where he stood seconds before. He raised his head up, shook it, and marveled at the power of the huge man. The only thing that saved Jim's face from being shattered was XANA's protection.

"I never took you for liking little girls," Marv said as he walked up to the hapless gym teacher, "but even a dunce like me knows that's wrong. And you being a kid's gym teacher and all, shocking!"

Aelita woke up just as Marv picked Jim up from the ground. She heard him say, "now I'm going to see to it you never hurt little girls again."

"Marv, wait!" Aelita called out. Marv turned to her and was clobbered by Jim, who fell from his grasp. Jim then turned and ran into the park by the school.

"Marv, don't hurt him! He's not in control of himself!" Aelita called as she got up and ran over to him.

"Look, Pinkie, sometimes a girl gets confused by things like this," Marv said, trying to be patient, "maybe you think you're responsible, but you're not. He's..."

"No, it's not what you think!" Aelita interrupted, "I can't explain it all now, but we have to catch him and you can't hurt him!"

Aelita then pulled out her cell phone and dialed. "Jeremie, it's me. XANA's attacked. Yes, I'm okay, but it's possessed Jim. And we have to be real careful, Marv saw him try and abduct me, and was going to kill Jim. Yes, get everyone together, I'll stay with Marv."

Aelita ended the call, then looked up to find Marv gone. How such a large man could disappear so fast was something she didn't understand. But she knew generally which way he was going, so she set off into the park.

* * *

Aelita walked down one of the pathways in the park, looking for signs of either Jim or Marv. She had to find Marv before he found Jim and did something the gang couldn't fix. There was no way Aelita could put a better face on what happened just now, Marv acted like a dunce, but he had a keener mind than most people realized. But in this case, Marv drew the wrong conclusion, and if they didn't do a Return To The Past, Marv would kill Jim the first chance he got.

Aelita was looking in the wrong direction when Jim jumped her. She screamed, but Jim just grabbed her and started running to the factory, Lyoko and the Scyphozoa.

Marv was four seconds behind Jim in breaking out of the brush and onto the path. He saw Jim carrying the screaming girl over his shoulder. He set off after them.

Marv's departure was witnessed by Yumi and Ulrich. Yumi got out her cell phone and called Jeremie to warn him that Jim, Aelita and Marv were on their way to the factory.

* * *

Jim was running across the bridge to the factory, Aelita still struggling in his grasp. He reached the edge of the platform that overlooked the main level and jumped, landing below with ease. He walked over to the elevator and called it up, confident in his victory.

Just as the elevator door opened, Aelita screamed, "Marv, don't!" and Jim was struck in the back by something. Marv had caught up with them and used one of the ropes to swing down. He let go about two thirds of the way through the arc, landing feet first in the middle of Jim's back. The impact threw Aelita from Jim's grasp and into the elevator. The momentum from the impact also drove both Marv and Jim in too.

Aelita quickly pressed the down button, then quickly shrank back into the corner. Jim had managed to get up, and he and Marv were in a desperate fight. Desperate for Jim, that is. The XANA-fied gym teacher tried every thing he could, super powered strikes, electrical bursts, everything, but Marv couldn't be stopped. He would only say, "that the best you got, pansy?" and press his attack even harder.

Aelita had never seen close quarters fighting before, and certainly never anything so vicious. Marv was actually injuring Jim, despite the protection and enhancement XANA's ghost gave him. But it was the look on Marv's face was what surprised Aelita the most. He was enjoying what he was doing, enjoying the pain he inflicted on Jim.

Aelita finally understood what Marv meant by being ugly.

The elevator reached the computer lab level and stopped. Aelita worked her way around the two fighters and entered the access code on the keypad, opening the door. Marv and Jim spilled out and onto the computer lab floor.

"Marv, don't kill him! Just hold him for a moment!" Aelita shouted at the big man as she ran over to the console.

Just as the pink haired girl sat down, she saw the worst thing she ever wanted to see. The ghost that had possessed Jim was now leaving the gym teacher's body. After it was free, it quickly enveloped Marv, entering his body.

"Oh, no!"

* * *

Jeremie and Odd met up with Ulrich and Yumi in the sewers just before the factory.

"Anybody hear from Aelita?" Jeremie asked.

"No," was the consensus reply.

The crew quickly mounted the ladder up to the bridge. When they were all up, Jeremie called Aelita on her cell phone. There was no answer. They quickly made their way into the factory, down the ropes and to the elevator. The elevator was already down so they had to wait for it to return.

"Maybe that's a good sign," Odd said, "maybe Aelita's here and safe."

"But what about Marv and Jim," Jeremie said, "Aelita said Marv was going to kill him. If she really meant that, and Marv really did, we won't be able to recover Jim."

"We'll just have to hope Marv didn't do anything," Ulrich said as the elevator arrived.

When the door opened, the group gasped. The inside of the car was battered, with streaks of blood almost everywhere.

"I think we're fresh outta hope," Odd said. They got in and went down.

On the journey down, they tried not thinking about what they would find. They didn't know Marv all that well, he seemed to be Aelita's friend. But from just looking at the man, none of them relished the thought of tangling with him. The streaks on the elevator wall made that prospect even less appealing.

The elevator finally stopped at the computer lab level. Jeremie entered the access code and the door opened to their worst nightmare.

Off to one side, crumpled on the floor, lay the battered and bloody body of Jim Moralés. He was still breathing, but barely. Marv stood a few steps away from Jim, not moving, looking at Aelita. Aelita was sitting at the console, a look of horror on her face. When she saw the door opened, she shouted a warning to her friends.

"Watch Out! Marv has been possessed by XANA!"


	6. XANA, Meet Marv

Warning: Rated for language, violence and adult behavior.

The main characters of this story are based on characters from the cartoon 'Code Lyoko.' I do not own, nor do I claim, any copyright to these characters.

This story also uses characters from the graphic novel 'Sin City' by Frank Miller. I do not own, nor do I claim, any copyright to these characters.

This story also uses characters from the movie 'Wasabi', directed by Luc Besson. I do not own, nor do I claim, any copyright to these characters.

References to 'The Goon' in this story do not refer to the character of 'The Goon' by Eric Powell.

* * *

Life was good. This was the first opportunity since Marv came to France that he was really able to cut loose and rumble. He never would have pegged Jim Moralés as a child molester, though. There was always something _odd_ about them almost like a stench, or an oiliness. The big man was usually able to pick out the vermin of the world, but was totally caught off guard this time.

When Jim ran off, Marv took out after him, not even hearing Aelita's plea to stop.

He ran after the gym teacher through the trees, losing sight of him a few times. He finally caught up to him just as he grabbed Aelita from the woodland path and ran off. Marv took out after them with a curse.

He finally caught up with the bastard in an old factory. Jim was on the main floor, trying to call an elevator when Marv swung down on a rope suspended by the entrance. He landed feet first on his target, just as the elevator arrived. Both men and the girl tumbled into the car.

Now Marv had him where he wanted him, up close and personal. Jim put up a good fight, getting some real good shots in, and also hitting Marv with some electrical bolts from some taser gun he had hid somewhere. But none of that fazed the hulk of a man. He pummeled and battered and maimed and life was good again.

The elevator opened up, and Marv and Jim tumbled out into some kind of room. Aelita ran out, shouting, "Marv, don't kill him! Just hold him for a moment!" as she ran to some kind of console.

Marv stopped and stood up, partially because of what the girl had said, partially because his opponent wasn't moving. He just stared at the body as what looked like smoke rose up out of it, then enveloped Marv. For a second, he couldn't breathe, but then the smoke cleared and the air returned. Then he started hearing voices.

_Take the girl downstairs._

Marv couldn't believe his ears. Something was talking in his head!

_Take the girl downstairs. Obey!_

_Why should I?_ Marv thought back.

_Because I order you to! _came the reply.

_No, this is one of those episodes I get now and then,_ Marv said, _I'm getting confused because I want to pound the shit out of that child molesting son of a bitch, and she's telling me not to._

_If you take her downstairs, she will be safe, _XANA tried this time.

_Nope, not gonna work,_ Marv replied, _I know jack shit about this place; so for all I know, you're just trying to make me do what that bastard was wanting to do all along. No way._

As Marv stood there arguing with XANA, the elevator door opened and Jeremie and the rest piled out. When Aelita saw them she shouted, "Watch Out! Marv has been possessed by XANA!"

Marv turned and looked at the newcomers.

_Kill them_, XANA commanded, _kill them all! They want to molest Aelita also. Jim was planning to meet them here so they could participate._

Marv took one step towards the kids, then stopped.

_Nah, my mind's playin' tricks on me again. The short blond kid is Pinkie's boyfriend. He hasn't worked up the nerve to ask her out to the movies yet, let alone mattress dancing!_

"Kids," Marv finally said, "I think you may need to call somebody. I get a little confused at times, and this is looking like one of those times. Besides, you need to call the cops to pick up that asshole for what he was gonna do to Pinkie."

"Marv, listen very carefully to me," Aelita said, "An evil being called XANA is trying to control you, to make you hurt me. That's what that smoke was, XANA. It took Jim over, and now it's trying to do the same thing to you. You must be able to fight it somehow, so whatever you're doing, keep it up. We need to go do something to make it stop bothering you, but Jeremie has to stay here, and I have to go with the others. Is that okay with you?"

_No! Stop Her! They will do terrible things to her if she goes with them!_ XANA raged, desperate.

"Sure, Pinkie," Marv said, "you go do what you have to do. Whatever's in my head sure as hell don't like it, so it's probably the right thing to do."

With that, Marv went over and sat down on the floor. Jeremie cautiously went over to the console and sat down, while Aelita joined Ulrich and the others. They all got back in the elevator and descended to the scanner room.

* * *

From its hiding place in Lyoko, XANA experienced a new sensation, fear.

It had rejoiced when it finally possessed the huge man, but the rejoicing quickly faded as XANA realized that it couldn't control him. The tendril of thought that XANA snared was almost totally separate from other thoughts the man had, almost as if he intentionally kept his mind fragmented. And it turned out that the fragment XANA latched on to was the most tightly regulated and controlled piece there.

XANA tried everything it could to make the man obey, but couldn't. Finally the man just walked over and sat down on the floor while the never sufficiently damned Jeremie Belpois took control of the console and prepared to send his friends to sever XANA's access.

XANA had expended enough quantum energy on this failed attempt, and started to withdraw from the man. But something went wrong, and XANA couldn't leave.

_Leaving so soon?_ the man thought.

_Release Me! _XANA shouted, _I will withdraw and cause you no further trouble._

_No, you'll probably go and cause someone else problems,_ the man replied, _I think I'll just hold you here, until they've done what they need to, then we'll see what happens._

That's when the fear hit XANA.

Never since it had begun its campaign to eliminate mankind had it ever encountered someone like this. The physical parameters of the man were frightening enough, but add in the mental ones? XANA was always in the past capable of pulling enough it itself out of the phantasms it sent into the real world to assure its continued existence in Lyoko. But now, it wasn't able to withdraw at all. It had never encountered this situation before.

It might actually be destroyed.

XANA tried everything, it attacked every thought pattern, even the ones that controlled the man's body functions, trying to find some way to escape, some way to shake loose the man's grip in it.

The struggle was so intense, XANA wasn't monitoring the events on Lyoko. The few creatures it had generated to protect the tower were uncoordinated and quickly defeated, and the Scyphozoa attacked severely enough that it had to withdraw without even getting close to the Keys.

Now, she was in the access tower, rising to the interface panel. XANA struggled harder to escape the man's grip, all the while feeling the pleasure the man was getting, holding the phantasm at bay.

_This is the way we handle child molesters in Sin City,_ the man said as Aelita entered the access code in the tower, deactivating it.

XANA shrieked as it was torn in two.

* * *

Marv was a little woozy after Aelita deactivated the tower. Jeremie noticed the quantum ghost rise up out of Marv and dissipate, then looked at his monitor with interest. It seemed that not as much of XANA's quantum energy was returned to Lyoko when the tower was deactivated. It was like half of XANA was gone!

The elevator doors opened and the crew walked in, still a little out of it from the return.

"Wow, was that different or what?" Yumi said, "I mean, it was like the monsters were distracted! Two Hornets actually shot each other!"

"Yeah it was weird," Aelita said, "after I entered the code, thought I heard something almost like a scream. I've never had that happen before."

"Hey guys," Odd called from over by Jim, "we'd better do something. Jim's pretty beat up."

"Now just what in hell is going on here!" Marv said, "just what was that thing? What is all this stuff?"

"No need to worry," Jeremie said from the console, "Return To The Past, Now!"

* * *

Marv and Aelita were sitting on a bench at the athletic field, watching Sissi, Herve and Nicholas pull weeds. Again.

"What the Hell just happened?" Marv said to the girl.

"You... you remember?" Aelita asked.

"Damn straight I remember! Not ten seconds ago, we were in some factory someplace."

Just then Jim Moralés walked outside and headed towards them.

"What the... well, I'm gonna make damn sure he don't walk away this time!" With that Marv got up to confront Jim.

"Wait Marv! Let me explain!" Aelita cried, grabbing the man's arm, trying to stop him.

"It's okay, he doesn't remember a thing," she quickly continued, "XANA possessed him earlier and tried to take me to the factory. We were able to stop XANA, then we went back in time to fix everything. Jim is just Jim."

"Well, if he doesn't remember, why do I?" Marv asked.

"That's a good question," came the voice of Jeremie Belpois as he walked up and joined them, "by all rights, you shouldn't remember anything. Maybe whatever it is that makes you resistant to XANA also enables you to keep your memories when we return to the past. And since you remember everything, we need to talk."

The boy explained everything to Marv about what they did, and what Aelita really was. Marv just sat there and took it all in. When Jeremie finished, Marv said, "that's quite a story you told there, Brain. But cut to the chase, what does this mean to me?"

"Nothing, if you don't want it to," Jeremie said, "just don't tell anyone. We have to be careful about going back in time, because it makes XANA stronger. The only reason we did this time was because you hurt Jim so bad we weren't sure he would make it."

"Well, I'll keep your secret," the big man finally said, "I've got more than a few of my own; so as long as it doesn't affect me, I don't have a problem with you having yours."

* * *

The man walked down the hall of the Administration Building with a sense of deja vu. He walked like he belonged there, and he had a purpose, so no one stopped him. He came to a room and tried the door. It was locked. He pulled something from his pocket, fiddled with the lock a moment, then the door opened and he went in.

The room contained filing cabinets. He walked along the rows of them, looking at the tags on the drawers. When he came to a set marked 'Students' he stopped and opened the top drawer. He worked quickly, he didn't know how long if would be until someone came in here with legitimate business.

He thumbed through all of the folder tags, ignoring all the files with boys names, pulling out the ones with girls names. He would flip the file open quickly and examine the first page. That page had a picture of the student stapled to it, along with their name and personal information. When he came to a face he was looking for, he noted the personal information, particularly the parents notification information. If he liked what he saw, he wrote the girl's name on a pad he carried with him for the purpose. He then replaced the file and continued his search.

He was able to search half the files before his self imposed time limit ran out. He looked at the list of names he accumulated, deciding whether or not to risk a return visit. He finally decided that the risk was worth the reward, and decided to return at the next opportune moment.

As he left, he couldn't quite shake the feeling that he'd already done this once already.


	7. Problem Solver

Warning: Rated for language, violence and adult behavior.

The main characters of this story are based on characters from the cartoon 'Code Lyoko.' I do not own, nor do I claim, any copyright to these characters.

This story also uses characters from the graphic novel 'Sin City' by Frank Miller. I do not own, nor do I claim, any copyright to these characters.

This story also uses characters from the movie 'Wasabi', directed by Luc Besson. I do not own, nor do I claim, any copyright to these characters.

References to 'The Goon' in this story do not refer to the character of 'The Goon' by Eric Powell.

* * *

Marv opened a beer and set it on the table in front of her. She took the bottle and poured the brew in a glass he set before her seconds before. Her hands were shaky as she brought the drink to her lips.

"You sure you're okay, Suzie?" Marv asked, concerned, "I still think you should tell Mr. Delmas what happened."

"No, no, that's alright, "Suzanne Hertz told the man, "I don't need to bring the school into my personal problems."

* * *

Marv first met the science teacher when he went to her about weeds. By that time, the whole school, staff and students alike, heard about Sissi Delmas' little run in with The Goon, and what became of it. He went to her to make sure he could identify any possible weed that might show up on the athletic field, so he could insure that Sissi and her friends did a through job of clearing it.

When he walked into the classroom, Mrs. Hertz was at her desk, going over her lesson plan for tomorrow. As she was engrossed in her work, she was humming a song, Walking After Midnight.

"Hey, Patsy Kline! I love her!" Marv said, surprising the teacher out of her reverie.

"What? Oh, Marv! I didn't see you there," was her startled response.

"I'm sorry, I should have knocked first," he replied, "but I do love Patsy Kline. She had a beautiful voice."

"I'm sorry, I've never heard of her," Mrs. Hertz replied, "I was humming something by LeAnn Rhimes."

"Almost as good," Marv said, "sometimes when she sings, she sounds just like Patsy."

Suzanne Hertz smiled.

Mrs. Hertz, it turned out, had a thing for American country and western music. When she told Marv some of the singers she particularly liked, only one of them meshed with his taste, Johnny Cash. The others he called "pop pussies in pointy toed boots." Real country, he opined, was Johnny Cash, Hank Williams Sr., Red Foley, Patsy Kline and others.

In a world of crazy connections, another one had been made.

One of the things Marv bought with the pay he got from Kadic was a radio/alarm clock/CD player. And the CDs he bought were classic country. Marv took to spending some of his days having lunch with Suzanne. The two of them would listen to the CDs Marv had, then talk. Sometimes, Suzanne would bring some music for Marv to listen to, and they would talk about those. The conversations got quite exciting at times.

The students at Kadic Academy saw Mrs. Hertz as the stern lecturer in the sciences, never to be trifled with. Marv got to see the side that only the staff and faculty saw, a quiet and shy woman, with a sly wit that matched her intellect.

Today, Marv got to see a side of Suzanne Hertz that nobody ever saw, a battered woman.

* * *

Marv was returning from an errand that the grounds keeper, Michel Rouiller, had sent him on. It was a small thing, a couple of bottles of weed killer for the rest of the grounds, not, Michel laughed, the athletic field. Marv laughed as he agreed to go.

He was walking into the campus when he heard two voices arguing. Marv was about to walk on by when he heard the _slap!_ of a hand striking flesh, and a woman's cry. Marv immediately locked in on the source of the sound and walked towards it.

When he got there, he saw Suzanne Hertz collapsed on the ground, crying. No one else was around. Marv dropped his bundle and ran over to her.

"Suzie! What happened?"

"It's nothing, Marv! Just go away!" Suzanne bitterly shouted at him.

"Bull Shit it's nothing," Marv replied, as he reached out to her.

She violently slapped his hand away. "Leave me alone!" she screamed, weeping, "it's my problem! Not yours! Just leave me alone!"

Marv stood there. "Alright, I will, Mrs. Hertz," he began, "but it's not just your problem anymore. It's now my problem, too. And unlike you, I tend to solve my problems."

He turned and walked away.

"Wait!" Suzanne shouted, picking herself up and running after him, "don't do something stupid! He's got ways around the law! You could be deported or worse!"

"Well," Marv said, "it's a He. Figured that. Let me tell you something Suzie, I never let a little thing like the law come between me and problem solving."

* * *

Now, Suzanne Hertz sat across from him in his cabin. The bruise on her face was just now starting to bloom in all of its purple and blue glory. She took another gulp of beer. Marv had offered her something stronger, but she declined.

"He's my husband, Enrique. We've been married for fifteen years now. And he's been beating me for ten," she began.

"He was nothing like this when we met. We were both in college, I was studying to be a teacher, he was studying to be an engineer. We met and fell in love, the perfect fairy tale."

"When we graduated, I got my first teaching assignment in Calais. He got a job working as a junior draftsman for an engineering company working on the Chunnel. We lived together for a couple of years, then decided to get married. I thought that was the happiest day of my life."

"What happened?" Marv asked.

"As soon as we got married, we tried having children," Suzanne continued, "we tried everything, but I never got pregnant. After a while, Enrique started getting angry, saying it was my fault, that there was something wrong with me. He started drinking more, started muttering more. We had more arguments, then fights. Finally, one night he hit me. We were both shocked, but then he hit me again, and harder. That's when it started."

"The next morning, he was sobbing, saying he was sorry for what happened, that he would never do it again. But he did, the next time he got drunk. And it got worse over the years. I left him many times, but he always found me, and he beat me when he did. The last time was five years ago, when I came here. A women's shelter helped me get away, start a new life here. I thought I was safe until today."

"When I was leaving for the day, Enrique appeared out of nowhere and grabbed me and pulled me away. He told me that he was going rip my traitorous womb from me as a lesson that I can never escape him!"

Marv just sat there with a hard look on his face.

"Tell me something, Suzanne, if you would," he said, "did you ever have a fertility test done?"

"Yes," she replied, "I did. There's nothing wrong with me, I'm perfectly capable of bearing children."

"Figures," Marv said, "a man can't sire kids and it's always the woman's fault, never his. Listen, you've tried running and it hasn't worked. You've tried keeping this to yourself and only gotten hurt. Why don't you try something different and let your friends help you?"

"I don't want anyone else getting hurt, Marv," Suzanne said, "I wouldn't want to be the one responsible for you or anyone else getting hurt by him."

"Don't you worry your pretty little head about that," Marv said, smiling, "I can guarantee that I will not be the one who gets hurt over this."

* * *

Marv was all for taking care of business by himself, but since he was a guest, in his mind, of Principal Delmas, he took Mrs. Hertz to him and had her repeat her story. Like Marv said, you didn't accept a man's hospitality then piss on his feet.

Jean-Pierre was shocked when Suzanne told her story. He immediately went to call the police when Marv stopped him.

"Callin' the cops is probably a good idea," he said, "but not until we have the bastard in hand to turn over to them. How 'bout this..."

That night, Suzanne Hertz stayed on campus, in one of the empty dorm rooms. The students were more than a little surprised, but Jim told them to mind their own business and get back in their rooms. One student tried a different tack.

Aelita Stones caught Marv on his way off campus that night.

"Hey Marv, didja hear?" Aelita began, "Mrs. Hertz is staying on campus tonight."

"Yeah, Pinkie, I heard," was Marv's gruff reply, "listen kid, I know you're trying to find out what's going on, but you keep your nose out of this one! It's an ugly business, and one kids shouldn't be involved in. Now just take your cute little self back to your room and stay there."

The look on Marv's face said he would drag her kicking and screaming back to her room if she didn't go voluntarily.

"I mean it, Aelita! If you don't do what I say, I'm going to tell the principal just how your crew ducks off campus to get to that factory!"

Aelita huffed an _oh-kaay_ and went back to her room, pouting.

Marv smiled as she left. _Sometimes, cute just don't work, Pinkie._

_

* * *

_

It didn't take long for Marv to find what he was looking for. _Paris is just like Sin City,_ he thought to himself, _walk down the right back alley and you can find anything._

What he was looking for was Enrique Hertz. He was willing enough to let the Paris police handle the situation, but he wanted to be ready in case that didn't work.

He found Enrique on the docks, close to the ship that brought Marv to France. It seemed that Enrique had fallen on hard times since Suzanne left him. He was rooming with a bunch of guys in a warehouse on the wharf.

Something was a little odd to Marv. No, not odd, familiar. Discounting the fact that all docks around the world probably looked the same, Marv thought he had seen a setup like this before, in Sin City. He couldn't quite place it though, so he set the thought aside for later reflection.

Enrique Hertz was a weaselly man. His eyes darted about, almost like a rat looking for the cat waiting to kill it. He was loud and a braggart, telling anyone and everyone that he was the baddest mofo on the planet.

In other words, he was full of shit.

Marv watched the man from his hiding place, taking pictures using a camera he had borrowed. He hardly understood French, but he didn't need to. The man's tone told Marv everything he needed to know.

_So, you really think you're Billy Bad Ass, don't you,_ Marv thought to himself, _well I'll be happy to make your acquaintance. I just wonder if you'll be as happy to make mine._

_

* * *

_

The next day, Marv showed the pictures of Enrique he took to Mr. Delmas. The principal took the pictures and had the security guards keep an eye out for the man, and contact him immediately if they saw him. Then Marv went about his business. Mrs. Hertz was back in class, her stern demeanor hiding the terror she felt deep inside.

It happened after classes for the day ended. Suzanne was walking out of the classroom when Enrique appeared out of nowhere, grabbing her and pulling her back in the classroom.

"You didn't think hiding here would fool me, did you?" he whispered in her ear, "you just made it easier for me to find you. Now, I'm going to punish you for running out on me!"

He dragged his victim over to one of the work tables, then slammed her face into the surface. With one hand holding her face down on the table, he kicked her legs out, spreading them open, then took his free hand, reached under her skirt and ripped off her hose and underwear.

"I think I will take my husbandly due before I give you what your richly deserve," he said, "and once I'm done, you'll feel the Fires of Hell before you enter them!" Suzanne stared at the Bunsen burners sitting on the table and understood what he meant.

Enrique was undoing his pants when someone said, "have you heard enough?" He looked up to see two uniformed policemen standing in the doorway of the classroom, pointing their pistols at him.

"More than enough," one officer said, "put your hands in the air, and step back!"

Enrique complied. The officer entered the room, approached Enrique, getting between him and his victim. His partner remained in the doorway, covering Enrique. The cop quickly handcuffed the man.

By now a crowd had gathered in front of Mrs. Hertz's classroom. Jim Moralés told the students to leave the area or face detention. Jean-Pierre Delmas stood there as the police escorted Enrique out.

"Stalking, assault, attempted murder, attempted rape, I think we have quite a list here," the cop was telling Enrique, "I don't think you'll be getting out anytime soon, my friend."

After they left, Mr. Delmas and Jim escorted Suzanne Hertz to the Infirmary.

* * *

That night, Enrique got out of jail. It was a close thing, but his boss sent a lawyer down, talked to the police, and had him released on bail pending trial. By the time his trial came up, Enrique would be miles out to sea.

He was walking by a dark alley when he was suddenly snatched up. The last thing he saw was the brick wall of a building rushing to meet his face.

* * *

Enrique woke up to pain. He shook his head, trying to clear it, then took in his surroundings. He was tied up in a building somewhere, a factory maybe. There were channels of water running in canals of concrete criss-crossing the area.

And towering above him was a monster.

"You understand English?" the monster asked him. He nodded in assent.

"Good, at least now you'll understand why this is happening to you. You see, we're here tonight because you hurt a friend of mine."

"You didn't take the hint, asshole. She doesn't like being your punching bag. If you would have just left her alone to live her life, you wouldn't be here right now, but you didn't. You just had to track her down."

"Then, you didn't take the hint when the cops arrested you. All you had to do was tell them everything, and take your punishment like a man, and you'd get to see the sun rise tomorrow. But you didn't do that, either."

"See, where I come from, we take a dim view of men beating up on women. And when we find one who just can't take the hint and stop, we like to give them a taste of what it's like. So I'm going to do to you just about everything you've ever done to her, and just about everything you said you were going to do to her, leaving out the raping part of course. That way, when you stand before God Almighty, you'll know what it feels like to get what you've been giving out."

Marv then flexed his massive hands and got an ugly smile on his face.

"You can scream now if you want to."

* * *

"Where's Enrique?" the boss asked as he walked in the room, "he should have been back here after I bailed him out. That sonuvabitch had better show up pretty quick, or I'll rip his balls off and shove 'em up his ass! He's already cost me too much in bail and bribes!"

"Don't know what to tell you boss," one of the men said, "we haven't seen Enrique since he left this morning."

"Well, he'd better show up soon," the boss said, "otherwise he can rot in France. And if he does show up, I'm going to feed his ass to the sharks after I'm done with him!"


	8. Surprises

Warning: Rated for language, violence and adult behavior.

The main characters of this story are based on characters from the cartoon 'Code Lyoko.' I do not own, nor do I claim, any copyright to these characters.

This story also uses characters from the graphic novel 'Sin City' by Frank Miller. I do not own, nor do I claim, any copyright to these characters.

This story also uses characters from the movie 'Wasabi', directed by Luc Besson. I do not own, nor do I claim, any copyright to these characters.

References to 'The Goon' in this story do not refer to the character of 'The Goon' by Eric Powell.

* * *

Sissi Delmas sat at her computer, chatting. She had been talking with these friends for months now, in the chat room she ran across. The thing she really liked about it was she didn't have to put on airs, like she did around school. She could let her hair down and be herself more. 

_metalfreak: where you been, beautyqueen? Missed you the last few days..._

Sissi, a.k.a. beautyqueen responded:

_beautyqueen: torture... detention... just got off..._

_metalfreak?_

_beautyqueen: daddy overreacted to a little joke I played, and had me pulling weeds for a month!_

_metalfreak: bummer. how 'bout hanging out?_

_beautyqueen: we are..._

_metalfreak: no, real world. how 'bout we get together and hang?_

Siss thought about it for a moment. She had never considered actually meeting any of the people she met on line; well, there was one, once a few months back, but that never panned out. She thought about it a little more, the replied.

_beautyqueen: where at? I'm in Paris._

_metalfreak: cool, I'm in Paris too. How about 1313 Rue Majik? There's a great club there we can hang at._

_beautyqueen: okay, when?_

_metalfreak: how 'bout tonight? 9:00pm_

_beautyqueen: okay, see you there!_

Sissi logged off and started thinking, _What will I wear? Trendy? Sexy? Sexy Trendy?_

Across town, "metalfreak" logged off his chat session. The man settled back in his chair and started thinking, _I hope she is a nice one this time. The others were only nice for a little while, then they got mean. It makes me upset when they get mean._

He looked up at the pictures tacked on his wall, pictures of other girls he had met online, girls that were nice to him while chatting, but got mean when they met him in person and wouldn't do what he wanted them to do. They were girls he had to hurt to make them stop being mean and do what he wanted. They were girls he had to kill because they wouldn't stay nice to him.

* * *

Marv was walking out of the gate of Kadic Academy when someone called out to him, Suzanne Hertz. He turned to see Suzanne, Jim Moralés and Jean-Pierre Delmas walking towards him. 

"Well, hi Suzie! How ya feeling now," the big man said as they walked up.

"Better Marv, thanks to you," the science teacher replied, "I wanted to thank you for what you and the others did for me. How about joining us for a drink?"

Marv smiled, "well! I didn't know you knocked back anything harder than beer, Suzie. And I certainly thought that the principal and the PE teacher both would be tea totalers."

"Marvin, why now would you think that?" Jean-Pierre said with a smile, "this is France after all, not England."

"Well then, since it's France and not England, I would love to have a drink with you. Where to?"

"Well, Marv," Jim said, "where do you go to bend an elbow?"

"Well, where I go I wouldn't want to take such fine upstanding citizens as yourselves, and it's no place for a lady."

"It sounds like Monique's," Suzanne said.

Marv looked in wonder at the woman. "You've been there?" he asked.

"Yes, I have," was her response, "some of the younger teachers have had parties there, and I've tagged along. I do know there is a bar without the the strip shows in the establishment, and it's actually a pretty nice place. I'm surprised you have never checked that end out, Marv. They play country and western music there, and that's where I developed my taste for it."

"Alright, Monique's it is," Jean-Pierre declared, "where is it?"

"1313 Rue Majik," Mrs. Hertz replied.

* * *

Sissi got a huge break that night when she snuck out. Jim was nowhere to be found, a very rare occasion. She had decided on 'sexy trendy' for the evening, and was wearing tight maroon slacks, a red bra under a sheer white shirt. She quickly made her way off campus, then set off into town. 

She checked a map and found Rue Majik. It was farther into town than she had ever gone before, but it was a fairly straight route. She began walking.

Slowly the buildings began to change. At first, they were nice and clean homes and shops, the neighborhood Sissi was familiar with. But after a while, the homes and shops started looking older and more careworn. The faces of the people she passed were a little less open and friendly.

Then the neighborhood got darker and spookier. The houses were more run down, businesses were boarded up, and the people looked at her with suspicion and envy. Sissi now picked up her pace, so she could get out of here.

Then she entered a new neighborhood. This one had night clubs, bars and 'gentlemen's clubs'. The girl stopped for a moment trying to figure out what a gentlemen's club was, when the door to one opened and she caught a glimpse of a naked woman up on a stage, prancing about. Sissi blushed and quickly moved on.

Finally, she came to Rue Majik. She looked around and saw that 1313 was just a couple of doors up the way, so she turned and walked there. When she got to the door, she saw the name, "Monique's, A Gentlemen's Club and Bar." Now the girl was confused. Why would metalfreak meet her here? She was thinking that is would be some trendy dance club, but this place looked nothing like she expected. She was about to turn and leave when someone approached her.

"Beautyqueen?" the man asked.

"Ah, no, I'm not," Sissi quickly said, ascertaining that the man was metalfreak and she was in big trouble.

The man smiled. "You must be her," he said, "I don't see anyone else that would possibly call themselves beautyqueen standing around here."

"I don't know what you're talking about," she said, getting more frightened by the minute.

"Maybe I should use a pick up line," he said, a frown growing on his face, "maybe I should say 'what's a nice girl like you doing in a place like this' or something else you would tell a tramp."

"Wait a minute! I'm not a tramp!" Sissi hollered, hoping it would draw some attention.

"Then don't lie to me, beautyqueen," the man said, "you accepted my invitation. You were supposed to come here and be nice to me. But instead, you come here and lie to me, thinking I'm stupid or something like that. You thought you could lie to me and make me leave, then laugh at how stupid I am, then tell all your other tramp friends!"

"No, no, it's nothing like that! I just didn't expect you to be so... mature," Sissi said quickly, "I thought I would be meeting a boy my own age, someone not as sophisticated as you are! I didn't mean to insult you, I was just surprised, that's all!"

"Well, okay," the man said, "I can understand that. Look, let's go now. I've got so many things to show you, there's so much to do!"

"Well, I thought we were going here," Sissi said, "it seems such a shame to come all the way down here and not see the place."

"No, that's no place for you," the man said, "that's where tramps meet their men and defile themselves. The go in there and they flirt and they lie and then they take men out and hurt them, laugh at them. That's what they do there."

"How do they know to do that?" Sissi then asked the man.

"They just know, come on now, let's go elsewhere."

"No, I want to see."

"Why?" the man's voice got a dangerous edge to it.

"Well, you said that tramps come here and do bad things to you. I don't want to be a tramp, and I don't want to do bad things to you. So I want to see what the tramps do, so I know what not to do."

"I can tell you that," he said, "just don't lie to me, and give me what I want. Let's go."

"But how do I know? I don't want to hurt you, I don't like hurting my friends. Let's just go in for a moment. I'm sure it won't take very long for me to figure it out, then we'll go and I can be real nice to you, like you want."

Sissi then took the man's hand, and led him inside. He followed her, dumbfounded.

Inside the door was a hallway, leading off in two different directions. Before them was a sign, "Bar" with a sign pointing in one direction, and "Gentlemen's Club" with a sign pointing in the other direction. Sissi led the man into the bar.

"I already had a peek inside a gentlemen's club," Sissi said loudly, "and I think naked girls dancing is one of the things you were talking about. But this looks like a nice place. Are there any tramps in here? Maybe we can get a soda or something?"

By this time, every head in the place had turned to the dark haired girl and the strange man. Dozens of pairs of eyes locked on the two, and got the correct impression.

Sissi looked out into this potential sea of salvation, and saw the most horrible and wonderful sight she ever saw, her father, Jim Moralés, Mrs. Hertz, and The Goon.

"Elizabeth! What are you doing here!" her father cried out.

The man with Sissi turned and ran out of the bar. Her father, Mrs. Hertz, Jim and The Goon all jumped up and ran to her. She threw herself in her father's arms crying as the science teacher and the gym teacher stopped. Marv just took a quick look at the father and daughter, then ran out into the night.

* * *

The police officer closed his notebook. "I think that's all for now," he said, "you should take your daughter and go home. And consider yourself very lucky, young lady. A lot of girls don't get out of something like this unharmed. Most don't get out at all." 

Jim had taken Suzanne home for the evening. Marv had never returned. That left Jean-Pierre alone with his daughter.

"Sissi, what got in your head?" he asked, "coming down here alone! I could have lost you!" The man was almost in tears.

"I'm sorry daddy, I didn't know," was her tearful response, "I didn't know he was a man, I thought he was my age. And I've never been here before, so I didn't know it would be dangerous."

"You could have asked me," he said, "I would have told you."

"You would have just said no, and that would be it," she suddenly said, "if I said I wanted to meet my friends, you would want to know who and where and..."

"For this exact reason," Jean-Pierre said softly, "I want to know where you are and who you are with because I don't want something like this happening to you. I've heard of it happening to too many girls, and it can so easily be prevented. Come on now, let us go home. We can talk more tomorrow."

"Ah, daddy, one more thing, why were you, Jim and Mrs. Hertz here tonight?"

* * *

The next day, Sissi was suspended from school for three days. It wasn't totally because she was in trouble, but Jean-Pierre wanted to take the time to be with his daughter, to talk a lot of things through. He couldn't make any promises to her, but he could at least listen as well as talk this time. 

Sissi and her father were walking out of Kadic Academy together when they saw Marv wander back in. He looked tired and ruffled up, like he had been working all night.

"Marvin!" Jean-Pierre called out. Sissi winced as The Goon walked over.

"Mornin' sir, sorry for bein' late," the man said apologetically.

"Where have you been all night? I was starting to get worried."

"Tracking down a friend," was the big man's reply, an ugly grin growing on his face, "caught up to him too."

Sissi looked at her father and saw the strangest thing, he was smiling a smile just about as ugly as The Goon's.

"And your friend, how is he?"

"Very, _very_ sorry for what he did, in the end. I can safely say he will never cause anyone any more problems."

Sissi wasn't exactly the sharpest pencil in the box, but she knew what was being said. The Goon didn't go looking for a 'friend' last night, he went looking for the man who almost hurt her. She knew The Goon was a monster, but now she realized that he wouldn't have any trouble killing a man, and stood there before her and all but admitted he had.

"I'm glad to hear that, Marvin. It's always a good thing when someone can learn from their mistakes."

"Well sir, I'll be moving along. I hope Mike ain't too mad with me for being late."

"Don't worry about it, Marvin. I spoke with Mr. Rouiller and told him not to expect you today, that you were sick."

"Thanks sir, I appreciate that."

"I appreciate what you did last night, Marvin. Good day."

As The Goon walked off, Sissi looked at her father as he she had never seen the man before. He had just thanked a man for killing another man!

Jean-Pierre Delmas looked at his daughter staring at him.

"Elizabeth, I love you more than my own life. I don't show you often enough, but you are the most precious thing in the world to me. And I will do anything, _anything_, to protect you. Now let's go and enjoy this beautiful day together."


	9. Shopping Trips

Warning: Rated for language, violence and adult behavior.

The main characters of this story are based on characters from the cartoon 'Code Lyoko.' I do not own, nor do I claim, any copyright to these characters.

This story also uses characters from the graphic novel 'Sin City' by Frank Miller. I do not own, nor do I claim, any copyright to these characters.

This story also uses characters from the movie 'Wasabi', directed by Luc Besson. I do not own, nor do I claim, any copyright to these characters.

References to 'The Goon' in this story do not refer to the character of 'The Goon' by Eric Powell.

* * *

The gang waited for the meeting to begin. They had been holed up in the warehouse they were in ever since they arrived in Paris, three months ago. Tonight's meeting marked the beginning of the end of their mission here.

Another man entered the room where they gathered, the boss. He was a large, piggish sort of man. He walked over to the head of the table and sat down. The chair creaked as he settled into it. He asked the assembled group, "now, what do we have?"

"Quite a bit," said another man, the photographer of the group, "I've been all around, and there's a lot to choose from. You've seen some of the preliminary pictures and gave me some suggestions to follow up on."

"What have you got?"

The photographer pulled out some pictures. In one picture, two girls were talking to a monster of a man. The boss recognized the man as a passenger who worked his passage on the trip from Basin City. A rather unusual coincidence, the boss thought, but put it out of his mind when his minion began speaking again.

"The young girl is Milly Solovieff. She's at the upper limit of age range that you gave me, but has the advantage that her parents travel abroad."

The man then displayed another picture, this time of Milly with a young black girl around her age. "In this picture, she's with another prospect, Tamiya Diop. Once again, no parents locally. Both meet your criteria, if just barely age-wise. Another advantage seems to be that they are friends. I've seen them constantly together, so grabbing both will be easy."

"I like your thinking," the boss said, " but let's go back to the first picture, the pink haired girl. What about her?"

"Aelita Stones," the photographer said, "she's outside your age criteria, but other than that, she's perfect. She's from Canada, and her parents are still there. Something else, the school has scant records on the girl, very unusual."

"Suspicious?" the boss asked, "do you think she's some kind of bait?"

"No, nothing like that," the man replied, "it's just weird, that's all. Anyway, other than age, she'd be a perfect catch."

"In her case, age is not a factor. She's on the list. I'm sure I can get a good price for her from any one of a number of different customers. I might even be able to auction her off!" The boss smiled in greedy anticipation. "What else do you have?"

The photographer went through the pictures and information he had gathered since their arrival. Hours later, the boss had made his decisions. In all, they would grab about thirty girls over the next couple of weeks. He specifically told his men to leave Solovieff, Diop and Stones until last. He had them in mind for some special buyers in Basin City, and want to be sure that he had them in hand before they set off.

* * *

Aelita Stones sat on the bench in the courtyard of Kadic Academy, a down look on her face. That's how her friends found her after classes.

"Hi, Aelita? Hey, what's wrong?" Jeremie asked his friend.

"I'm kinda worried about Marv," she replied, "I haven't seen him anywhere in two days."

"Well, maybe he left," Ulrich added, "he's not from around here, you know. Maybe he had to go home or something."

"Maybe," the girl replied sadly, "I would have thought he'd at least say goodbye first."

"Goodbye? Who's leaving?" came a rough, gravelly voice. The gang turned to see Marv walking up, a smile on his face.

"Who's leaving?" he asked the kids again.

"Marv! Where have you been, I've been worried!" Aelita said, "and what happened to you?"

"Nothing," the big man replied, "the cops just wanted to talk to me about some disappearing girls, you've heard about that on the radio I guess."

Marv was talking about the rash of kidnappings that had been taking place in Paris over the last two weeks. Young girls, some as young as ten, were being snatched right off the street. The police were in a quandary and the public was up in arms.

"They didn't think you had anything to do with it, did they?" Yumi asked.

"Well, they were just being thorough," he replied, "I'm a foreigner, and I've got the look of a street thug. They just played a hunch."

"Then why are you battered?" Aelita asked, concerned.

"This? Ah, don't worry about it! That's just cops bein' cops," Marv happily replied, "truth be told, Frenchies are some of the nicest cops I ever run across. I even told them that when they were done."

The gang just stared at the big man. He had just all but said that the cops beat him during an interrogation, and now he was saying they were some of the nicest ones he ever met!

"Listen up, kids," Marv said seriously, "you all need to be real careful. I don't know what's going on, but I suspect somebody's rounding up a bunch of talent to sell offshore. You girls in particular need to be careful so you don't join the talent pool."

"What kind of talent, Marv," Aelita asked.

Marv looked at the girl for a moment, debating whether or not to tell her the truth.

"Prostitutes," he finally said, "someone may be stealing young girls to become prostitutes."

He left the kids at the bench, not wanting to explain to Aelita what a prostitute was. Her friend Yumi's eyes got wide when he spoke the word, so she knew what he meant. If Pinkie didn't know, Yumi could tell her.

Marv went to the principal's office. He told Mr. Delmas what had happened, what he had found out, and what he suspected. He also gave the principal the name of the detective that had interrogated him, Hubert Fiorentini, and recommended that the principal get in contact with the man for suggestions on how he could better protect his charges.

* * *

Sissi looked at the dress for a moment, then hung in back on the rack. She looked down the line of dresses, then selected another one. She examined it with a critical eye, then turned with it and held it up to her as she looked in a mirror that was close by. She liked what she saw, so she set it aside to try on. All the while, she was thinking about other things.

The school year was drawing to a close, hence her shopping trip, and she had yet to find some way to get back at The Goon for the humiliation he put her through. She had run many plans through her head, some practical, some pure fantasy. Her only attempt a revenge didn't turn out quite the way she thought it would, though. She placed a call to the police, told them that The Goon was responsible for all of those girls disappearing, then hung up. Sure enough, the police came by and took The Goon away. But Sissi heard from Hervé just now that The Goon was back, and none the worse for the wear.

_How could the police just let a monster like that run loose?_ she thought as she took her selections to try them on.

Sissi was walking back to Kadic Academy with her purchases when she noticed someone familiar. Standing on a corner across the street, was a dark skinned girl, about her own age. It took Sissi a moment to put a name to the face; Sam, or Samantha, that was it. The principal's daughter remembered her now, Samantha was a friend of Odd Della Robbia's, was being the operative term. Sissi remembered seeing the girl a few times in Odd's company last year, but not since then.

Just as she finished processing that bit a trivia, a white van screeched to a halt in front of the girl. From her position, Sissi saw three men in hoods, jump out of the van, grab Samantha, and drag her back in the van with them. The door slammed shut and the van sped away.

Sissi screamed.

* * *

Detective Hubert Fiorentini shook his head as he emerged from the room. Several pedestrians had seen the kidnapping, but couldn't provide any new details. They already knew the gang used a white van, wore hoods and snatched their victims and sped off. What they didn't have was a face or a license plate. But Hubert interviewed each one, praying for that one little bit of information that would break the case wide open.

He looked up and saw two men standing there. One, he knew already, a American named Marv. He had gotten a tip that Marv was one of the kidnappers, so he had the man brought in and interrogated. The man was cooperative, for the most part, but even hard questioning didn't break loose any new information. A lot of speculation, some of that very intriguing, but no facts.

Now he stood there with another man, the father of his latest interviewee.

"Your daughter was not harmed," the detective said, "she was nowhere near the kidnapping when it happened. Unfortunately, other than the name of the victim, she wasn't able to provide us with anything useful."

"Is she free to go?" Mr. Delmas asked.

"Yes, of course," was the reply, "but be careful with her though, she was very traumatized by the experience."

"Of course," replied the principal.

"I'm surprised to see you hear voluntarily, Marv," Hubert then said to the big man, "despite your kind words, I thought you would never darken a police precinct again."

"Jean-Pierre asked me to come with him, so I did," was the big American's response, "anything I have to hide has nothing to do with this, or Paris or France for that matter."

"Have you thought of anything else?" the detective asked.

"Nope," was the response, "but I've been turning something around in my head. I ain't quite ready to say somethin' about it, 'cause I don't want you off on a wild goose chase, not in this case. I may not be the most righteous man on earth, but I don't like seeing this kind of shit happen anywhere."

* * *

The drive back to school was quiet. Sissi was still shaken by the experience, and having The Goon in the back seat didn't help matters either.

"Sissi, I want you to stay on campus until further notice," her father said, "you came too close to this evil for my taste. I don't want to lose you."

"But daddy, they never came near me!" Sissi exclaimed, "why should I be locked up and everyone else gets to run free!"

"I'm going to restrict all of the students to the school," her father replied, "I've already had calls from some parents wanting to withdraw their daughters from the school over this. It will only be for a few more weeks, I promise."

"Yeah, for everyone else, not me," Sissi flatly said.

"Would you accept an alternative, then?" her father asked.

"What?"

"You can go out, but only if you are accompanied by someone. By Marvin in particular."

Sissi whipped her head around to the form in the back seat. The Goon just grinned at her.

"Daddy!"

"Elizabeth, right now he is the only person I trust with your life. Despite your opinion of him, he is a good man, and more than capable of protecting you. It's either Marvin, or restriction to the grounds, your choice."

* * *

When they got back to the school, Marv stopped Sissi.

"We need to talk, Elizabeth," he said.

"No, we don't need to talk," was her retort. She went to walk off when his huge hand clamped down on her shoulder. She snapped around and launched a vicious kick, catching him in the groin. He just grunted, but still held on.

"Well, I'll say one thing, you've got spunk if nothing else," he said, "now Sissi, this conversation is not optional. We need to talk."

"What for, Warden? Am I going to have to weed the woods too?"

"Ah, still sore over getting punished, eh?" he said with a smile, "well, you did your crime, got caught and did your time. Far as I'm concerned, that's the end of it. This is something else altogether. If it's what I think it is, these guys are going to make those girls do a lot worse than pull up a few weeds by hand. And your father doesn't want that to happen to you."

"I'm sure daddy would pay any ransom for me and..."

"There's no ransom, kid. If these guys were after money, It'd be out in the papers by now. Nope, these guys are rounding girls up to sell as slaves. There' going to ship them off to..."

Marv stopped. Suddenly, the random thoughts that had been bouncing in his mind coalesced into a pattern. A pattern he could associate with a memory, an ugly memory.

The warehouse where he found Enrique Hertz.

Something about that place was familiar to Marv, but he could never quite put his finger on it. Now he could. The setup he saw at that warehouse was similar to one he saw back in Sin City on the docks.

It was holding cells.

The crime families of Basin City were continuing the age old tradition of importing prostitutes into the country, trying to set up another red light district in competition with Old Town. The girls of Old Town didn't like that for many reasons, competition being the least of them. Most of the time, the girls 'imported' were kidnapped abroad and forced into the sin trade. And, the gangs were also known to steal children for those sick individuals who liked their victims young and virgin.

Suddenly, a voice rang out on the school's loudspeakers. It was Jim Moralés.

"All students not in the dormitories report to the gymnasium immediately! All students in the dormitories, return to your dorm rooms immediately! Do not leave the campus! I repeat..."

"Sissi, do you have a cell phone?" Marv quickly asked.

"Yeah, why?"

"Give it here, Now!"

The teen got out her cell, and Marv grabbed it from her hand. He dialed a number, cursing the small buttons and his large fingers, but was able to dial the number he wanted.

"Detective Fiorentini? Marv. Get down to the docks. There's a warehouse next to the _Roarke_, a freighter moored at Pier 36. The warehouse is set up as a holding pen for slavers. That's where your missing kids are!"

He ended the call and tossed the phone back to Sissi.

"Get to the auditorium now! Tell your father I'm going to the docks!"

* * *

Milly and Tamiya were walking in the park after class. They had a project due for science that required them to gather some seeds and identify them. They had just gotten a few seeds from around a bush when two men grabbed them, covering their mouthes with a cloth soaked in something. The fumes made the girls pass out. Two other students saw them being taken and ran for help.

Elsewhere in the park, Yumi and Aelita were walking back to school. Yumi found the pink haired girl at the old house, The Hermitage, located on the other side of the woods. The gang found the place early in the school year, when Aelita's nightmares drew her there. Since then, she would sometimes go there to be alone with her thoughts, trying to remember just a little more of her past.

As they were walking back to the school, Yumi was admonishing her friend about running off like that because it got everyone worried. Suddenly, three men jumped the duo. One of the men grabbed Aelita and tried to cover her mouth with a rag of some kind, but Aelita was able to shake the man off. The other man just hit Yumi and knocked her out of the way. Yumi tumbled, but came back up and lunged back at the man, kicking and striking him with several devastating blows. As Aelita struggled with the first man, the third man attacked Yumi, supporting his partner.

"I lost my chloroform!" the first man shouted, "help me secure her!"

"Busy over here!" hollered the third man just as Yumi connected with a vicious kick to the man's groin. The second man recovered and struck Yumi in the back of the head, knocking her down. The third man, now free but injured, limped over and helped the first man secure Aelita. The three men took their prize, kicking and screaming, and ran.

Yumi recovered and saw the men run off, carrying her friend. She got up and ran after them. When she caught up to the group, the men were trying to force Aelita into a white van, but Aelita was putting up a hellacious fight. Yumi sprinted over and jumped into a flying kick that caught one of the men in the head, breaking his neck. Before she could recover and renew her attack, one of the other men hit her hard with something, knocking her cold.

In the meantime, supported by another man inside the van, a rag was put over Aelita's face, soaked in chloroform. As she passed out, she heard one man say, "screw it! Pull the jap bitch in and let's go! We're leaving in an hour!"


	10. Alliances

Warning: Rated for language, violence and adult behavior.

The main characters of this story are based on characters from the cartoon 'Code Lyoko.' I do not own, nor do I claim, any copyright to these characters.

This story also uses characters from the graphic novel 'Sin City' by Frank Miller. I do not own, nor do I claim, any copyright to these characters.

This story also uses characters from the movie 'Wasabi', directed by Luc Besson. I do not own, nor do I claim, any copyright to these characters.

References to 'The Goon' in this story do not refer to the character of 'The Goon' by Eric Powell.

* * *

At Kadic Academy, Jean-Pierre Delmas got the student count. All of the students were accounted for except for five, Milly Solovieff, Tamiya Diop, Sissi, Aelita Stones and Yumi Ishiyama. Jean-Pierre knew where Sissi was, so didn't worry. On the off chance that Yumi and Aelita were at the Ishiyama's, Mr. Delmas called Yumi's parents. When she wasn't there, Jean-Pierre had to tell them what he feared. They were devastated.

Then his daughter arrived. Jean-Pierre was relieved that she was safe, even knowing who she was with, but what she had to say when she got to him was troubling.

And to top everything off, XANA picked that moment to attack.

* * *

In Lyoko, XANA activated a tower and scanned the real world, looking for Aelita. There was something different about the area where she usually was found, though. All of the individuals were concentrated in either the dormitories or the gymnasium. XANA ran a pattern match on all the individuals within range, but found no sign of its target. XANA next ran a sweep of the factory, on the chance Aelita was there for some reason. The factory was devoid of human activity.

XANA paused for a moment. This situation had never come up since the girl escaped Lyoko. She was always within its sensor range, she could always be found somewhere close by. Now she was gone, and along with her, the required Keys XANA needed to escape Lyoko. This presented a problem.

XANA wanted the Keys Aelita held to escape the prison that was the supercomputer. In order to more efficiently eliminate mankind, it required total access to the real world.

However, its original plan was to destroy mankind from within the confines of the supercomputer. It was possible, but would take a lot longer than it would if XANA were freed. The original reason XANA wanted to escape was so it couldn't be thwarted by Aelita and her friends. Now, it seemed that Aelita had been eliminated.

XANA pondered possible scenarios. It extrapolated data it had acquired, both from its scans of the real world, and the information about quantum physics it took from Franz Hopper's mind. There was nothing that could be computed that favored getting the Keys from Aelita over remaining in the supercomputer.

Then XANA intercepted a radio transmission, on the police band. It stated that one Aelita Stones was missing from Kadic Academy, and presumed to have been kidnapped. The transmission contained her description and told all police units to be on the look out for the girl and report in if they say her.

XANA literally had an either or choice on its virtual hands. It could attack now with the resources it had, amidst the chaos and confusion that was already reigning in the real world, without worry of retribution by Aelita and her friends, or it could wait until the status of Aelita had been confirmed, then attempt to retrieve her and the Keys.

XANA chose to wait. It also chose to do something it had never done before.

XANA contacted Jeremie Belpois.

* * *

Jeremie, Odd and Ulrich were in Jeremie's room. They all heard the announcement and returned here rather than their own rooms. The Nurse came around and took a head count, taking down everyone's name and telling them to stay in the dorms until further notice.

Jeremie sat at his computer, typing fiercely. He was looking for any indication as to what was going on, why the school was locked down. He gasped when he saw the report that Aelita and Yumi may have been kidnapped.

"Oh no! Aelita!" was all the boy said.

Ulrich and Odd looked at the information on the screen, then Ulrich turned away. Just as he did, an alarm sounded on Jeremie's computer. The superscan that Jeremie wrote to detect activated towers in Lyoko was sounding.

XANA was attacking.

"Do you think XANA's behind this?" Odd asked.

"I don't know," Jeremie replied, "if it is then we need to get over to the factory, since that's where it will take Aelita."

Suddenly, Jeremie's computer screen blanked out. The screen was clear for a moment, then the red symbol of XANA appeared. Out of the speakers, came a voice.

"Where is Aelita?"

The three boys stared at the screen.

"Can you understand me? Where is Aelita?" the voice said again.

"We don't know where Aelita is," Jeremie finally said, "is this XANA? What have you done with her?"

"This is XANA," the voice replied, confirming its identity, "I have done nothing with Aelita. She is not within my perceptual envelope. Bring Aelita to the factory immediately, or action will be taken."

"We can't bring her to the factory," Jeremie replied, "we don't know where she is. And even if we did, we would not comply."

The voice was silent for a moment. "Bring Aelita within my perceptual envelope now, or action will be taken." The symbol disappeared and a map of the school and the surrounding area, including the factory was displayed."

"We can't do that, XANA," Jeremie replied. He then added in a softer voice, "I wish we could."

The voice was silent for another moment.

"The tower will remain activated until further notice. Any action taken against it will result in retaliation. You will return Aelita within my perceptual envelope. I will monitor data pathways for information detailing the location of Aelita. I will deliver that information to you for your immediate action. You will then go and retrieve Aelita. Non compliance will result in action taken against individuals within my perceptual envelope. Acknowledge compliance."

"Am I hearing this correctly, Jer? XANA is gonna help us?" Odd asked.

"It seems so," Jeremie replied. To the computer he said. "Instructions received and acknowledged. We will comply to the best of our abilities."

"I will monitor. Success."

The computer returned to normal.

* * *

Marv and the police got to the docks at about the same time. The freighter,_ Pride Of Roarke,_ was gone. When detective Fiorentini got there, Marv was kicking crates around the docks, swearing.

"God DAMMIT! Stupid fucking sunnofabitch! Ya knew what the damn place was when you saw it! Ya shoulda fuckin' said somethin'! DAMMIT!"

Hebert walked up to the big man. "I take it you have some information for me," he blandly asked.

"Great! You're too late too," Marv said, "well, just go ahead and shoot me! I'm about as useful as tits on a boar hog! I knew this place was set up as a holding pen for slaves, and I never put two and two together until good friends got taken! Shoot me!"

"Marv, were you involved in any of this?" the detective asked.

"No, but I must have come over with them," Marv replied, "I worked my passage here as crew on the _Roarke._ Whoever did this wasn't part of the crew though. Whoever it was kept to themselves in the hold. The captain gave strict orders keeping the crew out of there."

"And you never questioned this?" Hubert asked next.

"Nope, never did," Marv replied, "I was wanting to stay under the radar myself, as you've guessed by now. I was actually surprised when you let me walk out of the precinct."

"Yes, I was saving that little tidbit for a later conversation," Hubert said, "you wouldn't happen to know where the ship is heading, would you?"

"Not exactly, but I've got a good idea," Marv said, "Sin City."

* * *

When Hubert Fiorentini returned to his office, there was a message waiting for him. He dialed the number indicated.

"Detective Hubert Fiorentini, Paris Metropolitan Police Department?" came a strange voice.

"Yes, I am he. I am returning your message," Hubert replied.

"You are in charge of the investigation of the disappearance of Aelita Stones?"

"Yes, and thirty others."

"You will return Aelita Stones to Kadic Academy, or action will be taken."

"Who is this? Is this some kind of joke?"

"This is not an attempt at humor at your expense. I require Aelita Stones to be returned to Kadic Academy immediately."

"That will not be possible at this time," Hubert said, clearly impatient. "She has been kidnapped, and may be on a ship heading to the United States even as we speak. Now I have no time for this foolishness." The detective hung up the phone.

He sat down at his desk, and his computer terminal suddenly blanked out. Then a message displayed.

_Contact the nuclear power plant and request a reactor status from the chief engineer. Once you have ascertained the status of the reactor, call the number previously given. Comply immediately if you wish to forestall human suffering._

Hubert looked at his screen, then picked up the phone. He dialed the nuclear power plant and asked for the chief engineer.

"I'm sorry, but the engineer is not available," came a voice, "we have a situation here, and I need you to clear this line." The phone went dead.

Hubert quickly redialed the first number.

"You responded quickly," came the voice again, "now you more clearly understand the situation. I temporarily caused a surge in the nuclear reactor. As we speak, that surge is dissipating. You will insure that Aelita Stones is returned to Kadic Academy within seven days, or I will cause the nuclear reactor to overload and melt down. And that will only be the first thing I will do. To insure your compliance, I require several individuals to accompany you. They are Jeremie Belpois, Ulrich Stern, Yumi Ishiyama, and Odd Della Robbia. You will find them at Kadic Academy. Action will be taken if they do not accompany you."

"Wait," Hubert said, "you said Yumi Ishiyama? She is listed as missing and presumed to be a victim."

"Very well, Yumi Ishiyama is no longer a required participant. The others are non-optional. Your seven days begins now."

The phone went dead.

* * *

Marv, Jeremie Belpois, Ulrich Stern and Odd Della Robbia all sat in an interrogation room at the police station. The police came in force to Kadic Academy and demanded Jeremie, Odd and Ulrich, and wouldn't take no for an answer. They were quickly hauled off, brought here, and left with Marv for company.

"And what are you three doing here," Marv asked.

"I don't know," Ulrich said, "the cops just came in and grabbed us. They didn't say a thing."

"Well, be careful what you say in here," Marv replied, "the walls have ears and tape recorders."

Just then, Detective Fiorentini walked in.

"I'm glad you all accepted my invitation," he began, "well, not exactly mine. You three boys are here because someone else wants you here, and he's willing to blow up the city to make sure of it."

The three boys got knowing looks on their faces. They knew what the situation was now.

"Do you know who I'm talking about?" the detective went on, "your faces tell me yes. If you do know, tell me now so I can stop this madman. With the lives of everyone in the city at stake, pressing you for information will not be a difficult decision to make."

Jeremie gulped at that. He saw the way Marv looked after the cops interrogated him.

"Now wait a goddamn minute," Marv said, "it's one thing to smack me around, but it's something else altogether to do that to a innocent kid!"

"No, Marv, it's okay," Jeremie finally said, "yes detective, we do know who you're talking about. His name is XANA, and he's a terrorist. He's been harassing us for a couple of years now, and we've never been able to do anything about it. He told us if we told the police, he would blow the city up. Now, Aelita is gone, and he's going insane over it. He threatened to blow up the school if we didn't bring her back. He must have arranged this when we said we couldn't."

"Where is he? If I know that, I can stop him."

"We don't know," Jeremie replied, "today was the first day he ever spoke to us."

"Great! I've got over thirty girls missing, and a madman who's given me a week to return one of them or he will blow Paris up!"

"Then, maybe we should start trying to find the girls," Odd said.

"Yes," said the detective, "on that front, I have been in contact with the police department of Basin City, Washington. They have promised their full cooperation."

"I'd watch my back with them if I were you," Marv said, "the cops of Sin City are as corrupt, if not more so, than the criminals are. I'm not sure I can count the number of good cops on the force on one hand."

"Be that as it may, it's the only means I have of working there," Fiorentini said.

"Maybe I can be of a little help there," Marv said, "I know some people who would be more than happy to help out in this matter."

"I thought you just said the cops were corrupt," Hubert said.

"They are, but the hookers aren't."

* * *

The plane was plush. Jeremie had never flown in such luxury before.

Officially, the Paris Police could not work with the people Marv had suggested. In that respect, Hubert Fiorentini's hands were tied. He did have an alternative, however.

The first thing he did was charter this plane for Marv and the boys. Marv got a strange look on his face when he found out, and asked the detective where the money came from.

Hubert explained that he came into an inheritance a few years back. It was such that Hubert never had to work another day in his life if he didn't want to, and having the reserve to fall back on sometimes made his doing his job easier. Like now.

Marv wondered out loud who had to die to get that kind of money, and Hubert punched him in the face, then explained it was his deceased wife. Marv shook off the punch and apologized.

XANA contacted Hubert just before the flight left Paris. It asked for Jeremie and the detective put the boy on the line.

"Status."

"We are about to fly to Basin City, Washington, in the United States. Marv believes that Aelita is being taken there."

"Marv? Identify Marv."

"You remember Marv. He's the one you can't control," Jeremie said.

There was silence on the other end of the phone.

"Very well. Have you identified the method in which Aelita is being transported?"

"We believe that she is on a ship, the _Pride Of Roarke._ It left Paris this afternoon. We are flying to Basin City to intercept it."

There was silence on the line.

"Freighter _Pride Of Roarke_. Registry, Liberia. Left Port Of Paris late afternoon, bound for Thailand. Current position is turning south towards Gibraltar."

Jeremie relayed this information to the others.

"It's a lie," Marv said, "they'll go through the Panama Canal and sail directly to Sin City. They filed a false report."

Jeremie relayed that to XANA.

"Understood. I will continue to monitor data pathways for further information. When found, I will relay to you for further analysis."

The line went dead.

"You know," Hubert said, "talking with that XANA character almost makes me think I'm talking to a machine."

"You have no idea," Odd said.


	11. Welcome To The Sin Trade

Warning: Rated for language, violence and adult behavior.

The main characters of this story are based on characters from the cartoon 'Code Lyoko.' I do not own, nor do I claim, any copyright to these characters.

This story also uses characters from the graphic novel 'Sin City' by Frank Miller. I do not own, nor do I claim, any copyright to these characters.

This story also uses characters from the movie 'Wasabi', directed by Luc Besson. I do not own, nor do I claim, any copyright to these characters.

References to 'The Goon' in this story do not refer to the character of 'The Goon' by Eric Powell.

* * *

Yumi opened her eyes and her head was pounding. She was laying on the floor of some kind of metal box, like a boxcar. Around her were eight other girls, all wearing old dirty shirts.

She sat up, rubbing her head. "What's going on here?" she asked the others.

"I don't know," one of the girls said, "these guys grabbed me a week ago, then kept me in a cage at some warehouse. Then, yesterday, we were all brought here. We're on a ship."

Suddenly, there was a noise and the door opened. The girls shrieked as four men entered.

"You there, mama-san! Get up and come with us!" one of the men shouted at Yumi.

"Bite Me," was her response.

The man smiled an ugly smile. "Okay, have it your way."

He then walked over and struck Yumi in the mouth. She tried blocking the strike but the man was too fast. He then grabbed her by the hair and picked her up. She struggled for a moment, then managed to kick the man in the groin, causing him to drop her. The other men laughed at their comrade's predicament.

Then one of the other men came at Yumi. She had gotten up and was ready for them. When he lunged for her she launched a kick at his head, only to have her remaining leg swept out from under her. The man then elbowed her hard in her solar plexus, driving the air out of her lungs.

"So, you wanna play, mama-san?" the man sneered into her ear, "goood. You killed a friend of mine yesterday, and I'm gonna make you pay for it. By the time we're done with you, you'll be beggin' to eat your entrails!"

By this time, the first man had recovered and stood up. "Dammit, get her out of here! We're about done with the first one, so we need to get her ready!"

As they dragged Yumi screaming from the room, one of the men looked at the other girls, who never moved he entire time.

"Don't worry ladies, we haven't forgotten about you. You'll will get your turn in the barrel soon enough." He laughed as he left.

* * *

Aelita woke up with a pounding headache. She was in a dark room somewhere, and it was cold. The walls and floor were made of metal, and it sucked the heat right out of her.

There were two other people in the room with her, huddled together and crying. She recognized them immediately, Milly and Tamiya.

"Girls, it's okay," Aelita said, trying to calm them, "I'm alright. I'm here with you."

The two girls looked up and stopped crying. They then leaped up and ran to Aelita, jumping into her arms and hugging her tight.

"I'm scared!" Milly cried, "the grabbed us and did something to us and we woke up here. We'll never get back in time to finish our homework! Mrs. Hertz will be mad!"

Tamiya then said, "when we woke up, they took us out and examined us, like a doctor would. They told us to take our clothes off or they would hurt us, so we did, and they poked around in places the teachers said was bad for strangers to touch."

"Did they hurt you? Do bad things to you?" Aelita asked.

"No," was the response. "They were doing bad things to one of the other girls though. It sounds like they still are."

Aelita then heard it, a girl screaming and crying. It was loud, but it wasn't close by. Milly and Tamiya hugged her tighter.

Suddenly, the door opened, and three men stood in the doorway. They were in shadows, because the bright light of the hallway was behind them.

"You there! Pinkie! Get out here!" one of them shouted.

"No, don't leave us!" the two girls shouted.

"C'mon, get a move on, we haven't got all day," the man said, clearly impatient.

"It'll be okay," Aelita told the girls, "I'll be back in a moment, you'll see."

She then got up and left with the men.

One of them grabbed her and pushed her along, causing her to trip and fall. She was roughly picked up then shoved forward again. She picked up her pace and observed her surroundings.

She was in some kind of metal box, made up of other metal boxes. The hallways she was walking down was nothing more than a space between the metal boxes. There was also a gentle rocking motion, like the floor was on rollers or something like that.

She was led to another room, where sat the fattest and ugliest man she had ever seen. Compared to this man, Marv was Tom Cruise. The man seemed to ooze greed and depravity from his very pores.

"Strip," was the one word command from the man.

Aelita stood there for a second, estimating her chances, and determined she had none. She removed her clothes. One of the men that brought her in took them away.

"Good," said the fat man, "continue to cooperate and you won't get hurt. Now get up on that table and lie down."

Aelita was starting to get nervous, but she complied. When she did, the fat man waived a hand and another man came in the room. He quickly looked her over. He then pulled her legs open. She shrieked.

"Quiet down!" the fat man said, "he won't hurt you. Just lay still and it will be over in a moment."

The man put his hand between her legs and began to probe. Aelita did her best not to cry out, and for the most part was successful. The man quickly finished what he was doing.

"Yeah, she's a virgin," was his assessment, "a real cute one too. I might just bid on her myself. Who would have thought, naturally pink hair?" He gave her inner thigh a smack, laughed and walked off.

The fat man threw an old large shirt at Aelita.

"Get dressed," he said, "and I will tell you what your future will be."

* * *

The men dragged Yumi to another room, where they threw her to the floor. She quickly looked around and saw that it was some kind of lounge like area, probably where the men stayed off duty. Close by, in one of the room, she could hear a girl screaming and crying as another man was grunting and laughing.

"We're just about done with her," one man said, "she was feisty too, at first. She settled down a little after some 'persuasion' though." The other men laughed at that.

"Strip, bitch," another man said, "strip and make nicey-nicey, and maybe it'll go easy on you."

"Fuck off!" Yumi screamed at them.

"We fully intend to," the first man replied.

Then they grabbed her. She fought like a wildcat, but there were too many of them, and they were ready for her. One of the men punched her again in the solar plexus, while another grabbed her from behind. The man in front of her pulled out a knife and proceeded to cut the clothes from her.

After they had cut her shirt and bra off, one of the men slapped her hard in the mouth, knocking her down. They then held her down while they removed her pants and underwear, stripping her naked.

Two other men then held her legs down and apart. The first man, the boss of the others evidently, stood over her and began undoing his pants.

"I'd like to introduce you to a good friend of mine," he said as his pants dropped. Yumi struggled harder, knowing what was coming. He knelt down before her, positioning himself.

"He soooo much wants to make your acquaintance, " he said, "he want's to be the first to introduce you to your new life."

Yumi screamed as the nightmare began.

* * *

Aelita was led to another room. In there were about eight other girls around her age, all wearing nothing more than old shirts that barely covered them up.

The fat man then entered the room.

"Welcome to my little party," he began, "you are all about to undergo a life changing experience. From now on, the world will revolve around you."

The other girls perked up a little. The world revolving around them?

"In return for the attention the world gives you, you will have to give something in return. Allow me to provide you with an example."

The fat man whistled, and a table was brought in. Then came the screams and shouts of a girl. Two men dragged in a naked girl, and threw her on the table. Aelita recognized her.

It was Samantha, Odd's old girlfriend.

Sam leaped up from the table as soon has she hit it and struck back at one of the men. The other one struck her, knocking her back down on the table. The two men then held her down, while another entered, unhitched his pants and proceeded to rape her.

Aelita and the other girls screamed as the man began. Four other men suddenly appeared, holding guns and pointing them at the girls.

Samantha screamed and cried as the man had his way with her. He finally finished, then back away and redressed himself, a sick, satisfied smile on his face.

"I trust you all understand your place in life now," the fat man said, his own sick smile evident, "cooperate, and things will be tolerable for you. Don't cooperate and..."

The fat man then pulled out a pistol, pointed it at Samantha who was still being held down by the two men, and shot her six times, twice in the head. The men then let her go, flicking the gore from them. They then dragged Samantha's body away.

"I don't really need any of you here," the fat man said, "your younger companions are my primary interest. However, each of you has something that caught my eye. And, there's also my men to consider. They've worked hard for me, and deserve some kind of consideration beyond their pay. You will that consideration. All of you, except you, Pinkie, will be expected to meet my men's needs, whatever they are. If you do not, well, you saw what happens in that case. You needn't worry about being immediately pressed into service, however. My men are enjoying another guest at the moment. You won't have to come into play until they tire of her."

Aelita now heard more screams and cries in the distance. This time, she recognized the voice, the one person she knew fit into this group, but wasn't here for the fat man speech.

Yumi.

The guards started herding the girls from the room. As one of the men pushed Aelita towards the door, the fat man spoke up, "no, leave her a moment and wait outside."

Aelita stood there as the fat man regarded her.

"I bet you're wondering why you aren't on the menu for the trip," he said.

Aelita remained silent.

"Alright, be that way. You are unique, if you don't know it yet. I've walked this earth for many years and never come across a girl or woman with naturally pink hair. That gives you a certain amount of extra value. You've already seen your fate; it may not happen on the voyage, but it will happen. I am going to sell you at an auction, and I expect a good price for you."

"I am not a cow that can be bought and sold!" Aelita finally spat back.

"You may not be a cow missy," the man said, "but you can be bought and sold. It happens all of the time. You sell yourself in return for a meager salary to eke out a living. For that salary, you in return do what the employer wants, flip burgers, type, file, things like that. This is no different, and in some ways is more honest. In return for your continued breathing, you do what your owner wants."

"There is a difference," the pink haired girl said, "when I take a job, I decide who I work for and what I do for them. And I can leave if I want to."

"Yes, there is that little difference," the fat man said, "I also want you to know that I have special plans for your two little friends. A good acquaintance of mine is very interested in them. I want you to watch over them until we arrive."

"Why should I?"

"For one thing, if you don't, I'll have you watch while my men enjoy your Japanese friend. Then you'll watch as they kill her. Then I'll have them go to work on one of the little ones. I'd be losing valuable commodities, but one expects a certain amount of breakage in this business."

"I'll keep it up until it's just you and Milly and Tamiya. Oh yes, Aelita Stones, I know all your names. Fight me and I'll make you watch the raping and killing until you are the last one left, then I'll take out my losses on you. I'm not asking you to do anything you don't want to do anyway. I'm telling you what you will be doing and what the end result of your actions will be. You are not escaping the life I have planned for you, my dear, but you can postpone the inevitable, for you and them."

The fat man then called for a guard. "Take her back and fetch her charges," he told the man, "move them to the room next to mine. Let them move about the area under supervision, never less that two guards. And I will have the balls of any man who lays a finger on any of them."

As Aelita was being led out, the fat man stopped them. "Oh, and pull the Jap girl out of the rotation. Put her in with this one."

Aelita smiled at that small miracle. "Thank you," she said.

"Don't thank me," the fat man said, "she's a little incentive to remind to you of what will happen if you or your charges do something stupid. As long as you all cooperate, your friend Yumi will be allowed to remain with you unharmed. Screw up and she becomes the belle of the ball again. Take her away."

* * *

Yumi cried and screamed, almost hoarse, but it was no use, the man wouldn't stop. Her cries seemed to urge the man on.

After the first man raped her, they picked her up and beat her, then raped her again, then beat her again. After a while they figured they beat the fight out of her, so they just raped her.

They were right, they did beat the fight out of her.

Now her world was one of pain, humiliation and laughter as man after man had his way with her. She lost count of the number of men that abused her after the beatings stopped. Even now, as the one man was on her, two more were holding her down, waiting for their turn. She couldn't even escape into unconsciousness; when she passed out, they threw icy water on her, shocking her back awake, then they would start again. All the while, the other men in the room would make jokes and place bets on when she would try and pass out next.

Then another slaver entered the room.

"Okay, fun's over. Finish up, the boss wants her moved."

The two men holding her grumbled at not having their chance at the girl.

"Look, the boss says mama-san is out of the rotation until further notice. It's not like she's the only one on the ship, go get another one! Now hurry up so I can get her moved."

The man on top of her didn't stop what he was doing.

"Come, on Max, I haven't got all day!"

"Dammit, I waited an hour and I'm going to have my fun!" said Max.

Suddenly there was a clack, the wracking of the slide of a semi-automatic, and the man at the door was pointing a gun at Max.

"Finish. Now."

Max stared at the gun. "Thanks, asshole, I just did." He got off Yumi to the laughter of his friends.

The man at the door pointed at the two who were just holding her down. They picked Yumi up and dragged her crying from the room.


	12. Welcoming Committee

Warning: Rated for language, violence and adult behavior.

The main characters of this story are based on characters from the cartoon 'Code Lyoko.' I do not own, nor do I claim, any copyright to these characters.

This story also uses characters from the graphic novel 'Sin City' by Frank Miller. I do not own, nor do I claim, any copyright to these characters.

This story also uses characters from the movie 'Wasabi', directed by Luc Besson. I do not own, nor do I claim, any copyright to these characters.

References to 'The Goon' in this story do not refer to the character of 'The Goon' by Eric Powell.

* * *

The flight from Paris to Sacred Oaks, just outside Basin City, took an entire day, with refueling layovers. After the first two hours, the kids fell asleep in their seats. The adults spent their time conversing. Marv needed to bring Hubert up to speed on what Sin City really was like.

Marv could tell that the French detective didn't completely believe him. In Hubert's mind, no police force could be that corrupt. _He's gonna get a big surprise when he gets there, _Marv thought.

Marv had other concerns on his mind. No, only one other concern: a barely five foot assassin who he managed to insult and humiliate at the same time.

* * *

It started with a favor. Gail was going to go by and pick up Miho for work one evening, three months ago, but got tied up with a customer (or was that tying up a customer?). She called Marv, who drove by Miho's apartment every day, and asked the big man if he would drop by and pick the girl up instead. Marv immediately agreed, no problemo.

Gail said to pick up the girl at seven, but Marv misheard it as six. That one little lapse caused Marv to run half way around the world to avoid Miho's wrath.

Marv arrived promptly at six, like he thought he was supposed to, and walked in. Gail had said it would be okay if he did that. What he saw shocked and surprised him.

There, at a desk, sat a prim and proper young oriental girl, typing away on her computer. She was wearing large lensed glasses, a white blouse, a dark plaid skirt, and dark calf-high socks. She looked just like a catholic school girl.

Marv couldn't help himself, "Oh, My, God..."

He tried to hold it back, but couldn't. He laughed. No, he guffawed. He brayed like a jackass. The picture displayed before him was totally ridiculous! Miho, the terrible protector of the Girls of Old Town, a preppy school girl!

To make matters worse, Marv opened his big fat yap. "So, uh, Miho. Did Sister Mary Margaret keep you after class today?"

He laughed again, until he saw her face.

The young woman had turned to face him. Her face was a mask of horror and humiliation, mixed with shame. Only a select few people knew of Miho's secret fantasy, to be a normal girl, to have the dull, boring, normal life fate denied her. And now a good friend stood there as she was wrapped up in her dream and laughed at her, mocked her.

Hurt her.

Miho jumped up, knocking the chair away from her. She reached on the desk and grabbed something, a tanto she used as a letter opener. She screamed her hurt and anguish as she charged blindly at him, none of her formidable skills evident.

When Marv saw her pick up the knife, he turned and ran for it. He knew what Miho could do, especially when she was insulted, and that was no way for a man to die. So he ran, and prayed he was fast enough. He never looked back; if he had, he would have noticed that the girl had stopped just outside her apartment door and had fallen to her knees crying. He didn't stop running until he was safely on board the _Pride Of Roarke,_ sailing for France.

And now he was returning home. To Sin City. To Her.

Deadly Little Miho.

* * *

The plane made a refueling stop in St. Louis, the last stop before they reached their destination. During the layover, XANA called and spoke with both Detective Fiorentini and Jeremie. The blond genius explained that XANA was making sure that the gang wasn't up to something.

Marv then made the called he had to make, but dreaded.

"Gail, it's Marv," he said into the phone.

"Marv! Where the hell are you! Where have you been?" was the woman's reply.

"St. Louis, and I'm bringing a shitpot full of trouble back from France with me," he said, "slavers grabbed about thirty teens and kids and hauled them off on the _Roarke._ We've got to find them before they get rid of those kids. Plus, we've a nutcase that wants one of the girls back in Paris in under a week, or he's gonna nuke the city."

"You're just full of good news," Gail said, "I'll have some of the girls start nosing around. We should know more by the time you get here. When will that be, Marv?"

"Probably 'bout five, your time," Marv said, "and I'm not traveling alone. I've got a French detective and three kids in tow. The cop's a nice enough guy, but he thinks the Sin City PD is going to help him. And the kids are along because the nutcase wants them along. It's gonna be a wild party, let me tell you."

"Sounds like it," Gail said with a laugh, "well, we'll see you when you land. Miho's been looking for you ever since you left. She'll be real glad to see your ugly face again."

"I just bet she will," Marv flatly said as he hung the phone up.

* * *

The plane touched down in Sacred Oaks at just around five. The tower directed the captain to a hanger about halfway down the airport property, fairly well away from the main terminal. As Marv looked out the window, he saw two cars parked there, one of them his. Standing next to them were three women. One, Marv expected to see, Gail. The next was a pleasant surprise, Nancy Callahan. The third was one he expected, but wasn't looking forward to seeing again, Miho.

The door opened and Hubert Fiorentini stepped off the plane and walked a few steps away, stopping to wait for the others. Then Jeremie, Odd and Ulrich appeared and joined him. The last passenger to exit the plane was Marv. He just stopped at the bottom of the stairs and stood.

When Marv framed himself in the doorway of the plane, he saw Miho tense. _Not a good sign,_ he thought. Then, the moment he set foot on the tarmac, she sprinted towards him.

_I'm dead. I really blew it this time._ Marv steeled himself for his end.

Miho leaped and jumped on him, wrapping her legs as far around his waist as she could. She then grabbed him by the collar and looked him directly in his eyes, her face one of stern reproving. Miho couldn't speak, so she let her expression, body language, and weapons do the talking for her. Marv knew he was a dead man, he just wished she'd just get it over with. She obliged him.

She took one hand, reared back and slapped him in the face as hard as she could, staggering him. She never loosened her grip on his body. She then did the last thing Marv ever expected, the one thing he didn't think she was capable of. She wrapped her arms around his neck, pulled closer and kissed him full on the lips. She held the embrace for a long while, saying with her actions what she couldn't with her voice. _I'm sorry. I missed you. I'm glad you're back._

She finally broke the kiss, gave him one last massive hug with her entire body, then released him.

Marv was dumbfounded for a moment. When he finally found his voice, he said, "look, I'm sorry I laughed at you, Miho, I never knew..."

She silenced him by standing on tip toes and pressing her hand to his lips. The look on her face said, _I know. I understand. And I forgive you._

Gail and Nancy finally walked up to the group, now that Marv and Miho made up.

"You know, Marv, you're lucky she doesn't chop you up into sushi," Gail said as they walked up, "she's been upset ever since you ran off. I don't think I've ever seen her this way before."

"Yeah, I know," Marv replied, "things got a little complicated, and I needed the time to let things sort out."

All the while, the three boys were staring open mouthed at the women. They had never in their lives seen such beautiful women dressed in such a provocative manner.

Nancy Callahan was the most normal looking of the group. She stood there wearing jeans and a tee shirt that fitted her form perfectly, showing every lovely curve. The only thing better looking than her body was the smile she had, beaming from that beautiful face, framed by her long brown hair. She walked up to Marv, gave him a hug and a kiss, and presented him with his car keys. She had been the one to drive his car here. She then turned to Hubert and shook his hand in greeting, then said hi to the boys.

Gail was dressed for work, which meant that she was wearing little more than leather straps strategically placed, a thong and fishnet stockings. Handcuffs dangled from the belt she wore, and there was a gun tucked in the small of her back. She walked over to the boys and smiled. She then reached out and gently shut Odd's open mouth and said, "didn't your mothers ever tell you it was impolite to stare?" The boys snapped out of their trance and shook their heads to clear them. They then smiled, blushing. Gail laughed.

Miho was also dressed for work, in her dark kimono bristling with her weapons. Though she looked strange to Hubert, Jeremie and the boys thought she looked more like Yumi did on Lyoko. Miho eyed Fiorentini for a moment, then decided he wasn't dangerous. But she looked in wonder and recognition at the boys. All three of them were in the picture longbow14 sent her. She pulled out a small pad of paper and a pencil, and wrote something down, then handed the pad to Jeremie.

_Do you know a Yumi Ishiyama?_ the note said.

"Yes," Jeremie told the girl, "she and our friend Aelita are two of the girls they kidnapped. We're here to get them back."

Miho narrowed her eyes and nodded her head as Jeremie handed her notepad back. She now had another reason to kill the men coming.

* * *

The first thing they had to figure out was where to put this crew. Marv and Hubert were no problem, but the boys were.

"You can't keep them in the red light district," Hubert said, "that's no place for children, sorry for the insult, boys."

"I have to agree with Mr. Uptight," Gail said, "those three vapor locked just looking at the three of us; they'll be useless with all the girls in Old Town. Plus, the girls don't need that kind of distraction."

"Well, there's nothing that can be done about it," Marv said, "Old Town is probably one of the safest places we can hole up in until the _Roarke_ comes in. The girls and the boys will just have to adjust."

"Ah, ma'am," Jeremie said, "would there be someplace where I can get on the 'net? I can try and get a better idea of where the freighter is and when it will arrive."

"I can tell you that," Nancy said, "one of the girls caught me before I came out here. The _Roarke_ will be docking six days from now."

"Six days!" the detective and the boys shouted.

"XANA will blow up Paris then!" Odd said.

Just then, Detective Fiorentini's phone rang. He answered it, then gave it to Jeremie.

"Speak of the Devil," was all he said.

"Status," came XANA's voice on the phone.

"We're here," Jeremie replied, "can you verify our location?"

"Yes, Sacred Oaks Community Airport. Sacred Oaks, Washington, United States. Further refinement of position will require additional assets."

"Then you acknowledge that we are nowhere near the factory, and are incapable of surmounting an attack," Jeremie next said.

"For now I will concede the truth of your statement."

"Good. We have just learned that the ship carrying Aelita will not arrive here for six days. That is beyond the deadline you gave Detective Fiornentini."

XANA was silent a moment. "For now, the deadline stands."

_Click!_


	13. Pictures

Warning: Rated for language, violence and adult behavior.

The main characters of this story are based on characters from the cartoon 'Code Lyoko.' I do not own, nor do I claim, any copyright to these characters.

This story also uses characters from the graphic novel 'Sin City' by Frank Miller. I do not own, nor do I claim, any copyright to these characters.

This story also uses characters from the movie 'Wasabi', directed by Luc Besson. I do not own, nor do I claim, any copyright to these characters.

References to 'The Goon' in this story do not refer to the character of 'The Goon' by Eric Powell.

* * *

Yumi looked awful when the guards threw her in the room with the trio. Milly and Tamiya cried when they saw what had happened to the girl. Aelita ran over, picked Yumi up and half carried, half dragged the girl to one of the bunks.

Aelita had Milly go get a towel and soak it in the sink that was in the adjoining bathroom. There was a knock at the door, then one of the guards came in bringing a first aid kit.

"The boss said you could use this," the man said, "don't do nuthin' funny with it; you know what'll happen if you do." He turned and left.

Milly returned with the wet towel. Aelita had the girl carefully wipe the grime from Yumi while she took stock of the first aid kit. There was bandages and gauze, tape and anti-bacterial cream, scissors to cut the tape, pain reliever and alcohol wipes. It would have to do.

Yumi moaned and started to come around. She startled awake when Milly touched her, crying out and taking a swing at the girl, sitting up and backing away.

"Yumi, it's us! It's over now!" Aelita said, trying to calm and soothe her friend.

Yumi got her bearings, saw who she was with, and settled down. The Japanese girl was silent and stoic for a moment, but the facade quickly fell away, and she broke down and began sobbing. Aelita reached over and tried to take the girl in her arms, but was pushed away by her friend. She tried again, this time pushing aside Yumi's arms and enveloping the girl in her embrace. Milly and Tamiya joined in the hug, and all four girls started crying the pain and the fear out of them. After a while, Aelita took the first aid kit and did what she could for her friend. The four girls fell asleep that night in each other's arms, the safest place they could be at the moment.

When the guards came the next morning, they found the girls sleeping together in a puppy pile on a bed designed to hold one person. The clanging of the door opening woke them up. Yumi shrank back from the men when she saw them, thinking they had come for her again. The guards gave the girl a leer when they saw her fear.

Then one of them said, "don't worry mama-san, the boss says you get a rest for a while. We're here to get you cleaned up and fed. After that, you'uns can walk the deck for a bit."

They were taken out and led to another level of their prison. Here, some of the boxes had been converted into a kind of a locker room with showers and bathroom facilities. They gave the girls soap and shampoo and told them to get cleaned up. Then they stood there and watched.

Seeing that they weren't going to be given any privacy. the girls stripped off the rags they were given and showered. Aelita bathed Milly while Yumi was supposed to clean Tamiya up. There was only one problem, Yumi wouldn't move. The only thing she could do was to shake and stare in blind fear at the guards leering at her as she stood there naked. Aelita noticed this and left Milly, who was happily washing her hair, and went over to Yumi. She had Tamiya join her friend.

"Yumi, look at me," the pink haired girl commanded, "don't look at them. Don't think about them. Look at _me_. I'm here with you, and everything's going to be okay." Yumi slowly tore her eyes away from the guards and looked at Aelita.

She then took the shampoo, poured some in her hands and started washing Yumi's hair. "Just look at me," she kept saying, "concentrate on what I'm doing. They aren't here, they don't exist." She spoke to her friend, her sister, like a hypnotist would speak to his subject, weaving a spell in the girl's mind, never letting Yumi's eyes wander from hers, erasing her torments and tormentors for a moment. Her hands massaged the Japanese girl's hair, cleaning the grime out and soothing her spirit, if only a little bit.

"Turn around now, and I'll scrub your back," she said, soothingly, "now take the soap and clean your front." Yumi obeyed her friend's voice, taking a bar of soap and cleaning herself.

When she was done, Yumi almost felt human again. Aelita gave her a hug from behind.

"Now, could you wash my back? I just can't seem to reach," Aelita asked. Yumi smiled weakly as they changed positions and she went to work. The Japanese girl studiously avoided looking at the guards.

After they had finished bathing, the guards gave them clean clothes. Yumi and Aelita each got a tee shirt and jeans, Milly and Tamiya got large tee shirts they could wear as dresses. The all were given canvas shoes for their feet.

They were then taken to another room. Yumi tensed up as they entered, for she had been here before. This was the common area that the slavers came to when they weren't asleep or on duty. It was also the place where they raped her.

At the moment, the room was empty. One of the guards pointed to a table, and they went and sat. Soon, one of them brought plates of food. The four girls hungrily wolfed the food down.

Milly asked for seconds and got them. The man who brought the food then asked if the others wanted more. Aelita and Tamiya said yes. Yumi just nodded.

After they ate, they were taken up on deck. The girls now knew where they were, they were on a ship at sea. All around was nothing but ocean. The day was clear and bright, a beautiful day if they were in any other situation than the one they were in.

Four slavers acted as their guards. "Stay down here on the main deck," one of them said, "don't leave the deck for any reason. Don't try talking to the crew. The captain's told them to leave us alone, and we leave them alone. You see the others?" He pointed at the other older girls and some of the young ones. "Don't mingle. You two older ones are being treated different from the other girls, and they might not appreciate it. And don't get too close to the little ones, it's gonna be bad enough when we separate you lot, no need to make it worse."

He then prodded them along, and they walked.

This became their routine for the trip. Wake, bathe, eat, walk. Back to the room, sleep, repeat. That is, until the fourth day.

* * *

When the guards woke them on the fourth day, one of them said, "the boss wants to see you three. You're gonna be in pictures!"

The boss came in while they were eating. He walked right over, smiling and sat down next to Aelita.

"And how are you this fine day? Rest well?" he asked.

"Well enough, under the circumstances," was Aelita's reply, "would it be possible for us to bath in private? Your men upset Yumi."

"No, that won't be possible, I'm afraid," the boss replied, "it's bad enough my men are deprived of your friend's delightful company; I just cannot deny them the pleasure of gazing at her beauty. But enough of that. Now that you have eaten, I want you all to come with me. You and the little ones are going to have your pictures taken."

"What for?" Aelita asked.

"Advertising. I want my buyers to have an idea of what they're getting for their money."

* * *

The girls were brought to yet another room, this one with a camera setup worthy of a professional photographer. In front of the camera setup was a draped area with a stool sitting in the middle.

"I want the little ones first," the boss said, "you, Milly, go sit on the stool and do what the photographer tells you to do. You won't be hurt, I promise you."

Milly glanced at Aelita, who nodded her head. The girl then went over an got up on the stool. The photographer stood there a moment, appraising his subject, then looked in his camera, then stood up and looked at her again.

"She needs some makeup," he said, "she looks awful in this lighting."

Milly got a sad look on her face. The man quickly said, "no honey, it's not you! The lighting doesn't make you look as pretty as you are. Did you ever wonder how those women in those magazines looked the way they looked?"

Milly thought a moment, then replied, "yeah, I did. I always wished I could look like they did."

"Well, I'll let you in on a little secret," he told her, "you look as good as they ever did. I'm not saying they're not beautiful under that makeup, but the makeup helps bring the beauty they have in them out and on to the picture. Would you like me to do that for you?"

"Yes!" Milly said excitedly. The photographer and the boss smiled.

The man went over and got a little suitcase and brought it over. When he opened it, he revealed a makeup kit. The various items looked more like a painter's paint set than a make up kit. The young girl was awed by what she saw.

He then started working on the girl, applying the makeup. Every now and then, he would comment on how good she was doing, and how pretty she would be when he was done.

Finally, he finished. He produced a mirror and showed the girl the results of his labor. She was immensely pleased. Aelita had to admit that the man did a wonderful job on Milly.

Then, he went back to his camera and started taking pictures, all the while telling Milly how wonderful she looked and how good the pictures were turning out. After a while, he stopped and stood up.

"Milly, I want you to get down from the stool now," he said. Milly obeyed and started walking over to Aelita and the others. The man stopped her.

"No, I'm not done yet. I want you to take your shirt off now."

Milly's eyes got wide. The boss, who had been silent all along, started to say something, but the photographer stopped him.

"Milly, I know you don't want to do it, but you must. You know what will happen to your friend if you don't do what you're told, don't you."

The tears starting to well up in the girls eyes told the man that she did.

He smiled. "I'm not going to do anything bad to you. I'm not going to make you do anything bad. But I have to take these pictures of you. The only thing I'm going to do is put some makeup on your body like I did your face, and it will be for he same reason."

The man brought his makeup case over to her, pulled the shirt off the girl, and gently started applying it to her. Milly stiffened as he worked, but did not fight. When he was done, he touched up the makeup on her face and led her back in front of the camera. He moved the stool out of the way and had her stand in its place. He then went back to the camera and started taking pictures again. At first, Milly stood there, stiff and ready to cry, but the man talked to her, telling her she was still pretty, and he was almost done. She relaxed a little, and even gave the man a little smile. Finally he finished and had the girl put her dress/shirt back on.

"One down, two to go," said the boss.

* * *

Tamiya went a little quicker than Milly did. She knew what was going to happen, and she knew what would happen if she didn't cooperate, so she just got it over with.

Then it was Aelita's turn.

"You're going to be somewhat of a challenge," the photographer said, "with your coloring, I'm not sure how the pictures are going to turn out. Do you use makeup? If so, what have you tried that works on you?"

"I've not had the need until now," she replied.

"Pity," was his reply. He thought a while longer, then started working. After a while, he went back and checked how she looked through the camera.

"I think we've got something to work with here," he said as he started taking pictures.

He handled Aelita just as he did Milly and Tamiya before. Soon he finished, and the dreaded part began.

"You know the drill, strip."

She removed her clothes and stood there. The photographer had her sit back on the stool and posed her. Every now and then, he told her to smile, and she gave him a quarter hearted one after the boss cleared his throat, reminding her of the price of noncompliance.

He then had her stand and repeated the procedure. Then man then told her to start touching herself.

"I will not!" was her response. There was a sudden movement, and the guards grabbed Yumi, Milly and Tamiya. They all now had knives held to their throats, a small line of blood running down Yumi's neck where she got nicked.

"I think you had better reconsider," the boss said, "you will do what he tells you to do, and you will convince me and the camera that you are enjoying it. If we both aren't convinced, I'll skin them alive, buyer or no."

Aelita stared at the fat man for a moment, then decided he wasn't bluffing. She nodded her head.

There was only one way to give the boss and his photographer what they required. She had to open a door she wasn't ready to open, not yet. She raised the sensations that the men wanted her to display and opened her soul to receive them. After a while, she only vaguely heard the photographer tell her what to do; a small part of her processed his commands and she complied. But rather than picture the fat pig of a man, or even the photographer, watching her, she imagined that it was Jeremie. It was Jeremie she was showing herself to, she was doing what she did for him, for them. As the feelings and sensations she raised engulfed her, feelings that should have remained dormant for years yet, she imagined that Jeremie was in her arms, that he was giving this to her, and she was giving her love, herself, back to him. She ultimately lost herself in a sea of ecstasy, with Jeremie at the center.

* * *

Afterwards, the four girls were standing on the deck of the ship, leaning on the railing and watching the land roll by them. One of the guards said they were in the Panama Canal, and it wouldn't be much longer before they reached their destination.

"You know, it was kinda fun," Milly said, "that is, until he made Aelita do those things."

Aelita hung her head down. "That's what we're all going to be doing soon enough," she said, "that's why we're here, Milly. Sooner or later, we all are going to have to do things like that, and worse."

"But surely someone's looking for us," Tamiya said, "what about Jeremie? He's smart, I'll bet he can find us."

"I'm sure he can," Yumi said, finally breaking her silence, "but even if he did, I don't know if he could convince anyone to come get us. He's only a kid, just like we are. Nobody pays attention to kids."

"Yumi, we can't think that way," Aelita said, "if we do, then we've truly lost."

She looked out at the shoreline, her eye catching a surveillance camera on a pole, panning over and pointing straight at them.

"We have to have faith. Look at that camera," she said, pointing at the device, "I'll just bet that Jeremie's looking through it right now at us. Look straight into it, just like you did earlier when they were taking those vile pictures of us. Look at it and hope that Jeremie or someone will see us and come after us."


	14. Waiting In Old Town

Warning: Rated for language, violence and adult behavior.

The main characters of this story are based on characters from the cartoon 'Code Lyoko.' I do not own, nor do I claim, any copyright to these characters.

This story also uses characters from the graphic novel 'Sin City' by Frank Miller. I do not own, nor do I claim, any copyright to these characters.

This story also uses characters from the movie 'Wasabi', directed by Luc Besson. I do not own, nor do I claim, any copyright to these characters.

References to 'The Goon' in this story do not refer to the character of 'The Goon' by Eric Powell.

* * *

Once they got everybody settled, Marv prowled the alleys and back doors of Sin City, searching for information about the _Roarke_ and generally letting the populace know he was back. The only useful thing he learned was where the freighter was going to dock when it arrived. The man who finally told him the location held out long enough for Marv to have a little fun. The big man was almost disappointed when the man finally babbled the location, before passing out. Marv wanted to do more, but didn't. He had what he was looking for and this was strictly business. _God help those bastards when they get here,_ Marv thought, _'cause I'm gonna work out my frustrations on them._

He made his way back to Old Town, to Kadie's. There, he sat at he bar and drank a few beers, watching Nancy do her third set of the night. She smiled at him, sauntered over and leaned down, whispering in his ear, "the boys are upstairs, tucked in for the night. Room 213." She kissed his cheek then stood back up, an impish grin on her face. All the other mooks in the joint whooped and hollered at the special attention Marv got. He just smiled as he got up and walked upstairs to the cheers of the other patrons, who had totally misunderstood what just transpired.

When Marv got up to room 213, he found one French detective and three French kids all passed out, sleeping off jet lag. Marv was feeling pretty lagged himself, but he sat down and drank the beer he got from Kadie before coming upstairs. He managed to finish it before the trip finally caught up with him.

* * *

The next morning, after sleeping off his jet lag, Detective Hubert Fiorentini, Paris Metropolitan Police Department, went to the headquarters of the Basin City Police Department to officially request their assistance on behalf of the Paris Metropolitan Police Department. After talking for an hour, he looked at the man sitting across from him and realized that what Marv told him about the Basin City Police Department was absolutely correct.

Commissioner Lebowitz sat behind his desk and smiled as he said he would extend all of the courtesy and assistance to the detective that he could offer. "However," he said, "I have direct knowledge that the _Pride of Roarke_ is currently rounding the Cape of Good Hope en route to Thailand. I also have direct knowledge that the freighter is carrying humanitarian supplies for relief work in the region. Now, I don't know where you got your information from, sir, but it's bogus. I was even able to speak to the captain of the _Pride_, and able to confirm what I just said. Now, I would suggest you go back to your hotel room, get some rest, then go out and see the sights. Then, after a couple of days, you can go back to Paris and tell your superiors that your information didn't pan out. You get a nice vacation, the local economy gets a boost, and your boss can close his file on this. Everybody wins."

"Yes, everybody but the thirty French citizens who were taken," Hubert said, "thank you for your time, Commissioner, but I must be on my way. As you just said, I need to get back to my hotel room and rest."

Hubert was fuming as he walked out of the police department. What he dearly wanted to do at that moment was beat the smarmy smile off the Commissioner's face.

_Well, we'll just have to do it Marv's way,_ Fiorentini thought to himself, _and that really doesn't bother me all that much, come to think of it._

_

* * *

_

Ulrich woke up to Yumi shaking him. He fussed a moment, then opened his eyes and saw the girl, and almost threw himself in her arms, thinking she had somehow magically escaped. Then reality set in and he saw that it was Miho, one of the ladies he met yesterday. She had a look on her face that said, _get up and be glad you didn't do what you almost did_. The boy grinned sheepishly, scratched his hair, and got up for the day. Gail, one of the other ladies, was leaning against the far wall, smiling at what almost happened. They had stopped by after finishing up for the night to check up on the boys.

"Better watch it, Miho, I think you've got a boyfriend," she said. Miho shot her friend a look that said, _yeah, right_.

Once they were sure that everyone was alright, Gail and Miho left. Marv said he had to go out and see some people, and Hubert said he needed to go out and meet with the local police. Jeremie sat at his computer cruising the 'net for any thing more he could find out about the girls. That left Odd and Ulrich to their own devices.

The only problem with staying in Old Town was that there was nothing to do during the day, since the entertainment was geared to the nightlife. So they went downstairs and saw the barkeep, Kadie, cleaning up after the night's business.

"Hello, boys," she said in tired greeting, "how do you like the U S of A so far?"

Ulrich grinned, "what little we've seen is nice. I'll have to say, the girls sure are pretty."

Kadie laughed, "you know, word about you three has already gotten around Old Town. A lot of the girls wanted to have a peek at you last night. Gail just about had to knock some heads together to keep 'em in line."

"Well, what do you expect when it's us?" Odd said with a smile, "we're just babe magnets!"

The barkeep gave Odd a wicked grin. "Well, more than a couple of the male hookers were interested especially in you, cutie pie, so I'd watch my back, if you catch my drift."

The look on Odd's face was priceless. Both Ulrich and Kadie laughed at the boy's embarrassment.

"Now, you two look like you're looking for some mischief to get into," Kadie declared, "rather than giving everybody a case of heartburn, why don't you make yourselves useful and help me clean up."

With that, she gave Odd a rag and Ulrich a mop and set them to cleaning. After Odd wiped down the bar and the tables, she had him start doing dishes in the back. Ulrich mopped the floor, then vacuumed the carpeted areas. After that, she gave him some brass polish and had him cleaning the brass fixtures.

While taking a break from polishing, Ulrich asked, "do girls really dance naked up on that stage?"

Kadie smiled and replied, "they don't start out that way, but the do end up that way. But to answer your question, yes they do, every night."

"Why?"

Kadie then got serious. "A lot of reasons, son. As many reasons as there are girls who dance. Take Nancy, for instance. You've met her, she's beautiful, and she's smart. She's studying to be a lawyer, going to school full time. But she comes here almost every night and dances. I'm not complaining, she's the best girl I've got, but she doesn't need to do it. And I have no reason why she does. There's only one thing I can think of."

"What's that?"

"She's got somethin' in mind. Somthin' that she needs contacts for. Contacts that would frequent places like this."

"Wow, I wonder what it is?"

"So do I, kid, so do I. Now get yourself back to work."

The boys finished cleaning up just before noon. Kadie gave them both fifty dollars for their trouble. When they protested, she said a workman was worth his hire, and wouldn't hear anything else. This was the fastest she had the place cleaned up in a long time, and was grateful for the help.

* * *

That afternoon, Gail and Miho came by to visit.

"Anything new?" Gail asked.

"Nothing," Hubert replied, "I haven't heard from Marv all day. Is that normal?"

"There's two places Marv probably went to," Gail said, "one was his mother's place. He worries about her as much as she worries about him, so he drops by when he can. Given the way he just up and left, she's probably been worried sick about him."

"And the other place?" the detective asked.

"His parole officer," was the reply, "hopefully he didn't get his ass thrown in jail."

"Nah, Lucille ain't that way," Marv said as he entered, smiling to all in greeting, "still, I had to go by and see her. I didn't want her to get in trouble just because I was stupid. I also needed to refill my prescription."

Ulrich, in the meantime, was looking at Miho, fascinated. Miho noticed his stare and got a perturbed look on her face, one that said, _and just what do you want?_

Ulrich understood the message and blushed. Then he asked, "ah, are those real?"

Miho's look now became, _I can't believe you just said that!_ She started to walk menacingly towards the hapless boy.

"The swords," Ulrich quickly said in clarification, "are those swords real?"

The pint sized assissin's body language changed, but not her course. She walked up to the boy, then reached back and drew one of her katanas. Gail tensed up, thinking Miho might hurt the boy, but eased up when she instead handed it to him, then took a step back.

Ulrich accepted the weapon and carefully held it. He look closely at the blade, careful not to let his breath sully its perfection, then realized that it came from Japan, not Spain. He turned to the side, so as not to hurt anybody, and raised the sword up. He then slowly went through the motions of a kata he had practiced once, long ago, then suddenly turned about and blocked the sword strike that Miho had launched while his back was turned. People scattered as their swordplay advanced up and down the room. The scene finally stopped when Miho's blade touched Ulrich's neck. She smiled at him. He returned her smile with one of his own, then motioned with his eyes. She looked down and saw that Ulrich's blade was just touching her side. If it had been a real fight, he would have eviscerated her just as she beheaded him. She drew her blade away from him as he drew his blade away from her. They then saluted each other with their swords, then Ulrich returned the blade to its proper owner.

"Well Miho, maybe you have a playmate after all," Gail said.

* * *

The next morning, Odd and Ulrich went downstairs and helped Kadie clean up again. They had decided to help the barkeep clean up in the mornings after closing, then help in the afternoons when she opened. They both liked the old woman as almost a surrogate grandmother, so it surprised them when Marv told them that Kadie used to be a man.

Jeremie also sat with Kadie for part of the day, looking over her computer setup. The computer she used to maintain the bar business was old, but adequate. However, Kadie had another computer in her apartment, that was much more sophisticated. Jeremie looked it over, poked around a bit, and made some recommendations to the woman for upgrades that would improve her performance. He never inquired too closely as to why she needed such a powerful system.

That afternoon, Ulrich didn't join Odd downstairs. Miho came by, and brought two wooden practice swords with her. She gave one to Ulrich, then pointed at the door. The two disappeared.

"Guys, I think I just found something," Jeremie suddenly said.

"What?"Marv asked.

Jeremie replied, "a ship, marked the _Pride of Roarke_, entered the Panama Canal this morning. The ship in the canal matches your description of it, Marv. They must be using a ship with a false electronic signature to throw off casual inquiries. I'm lucky I got this; it came from an unusual source."

"Where?" Hubert asked.

"From surveillance cameras posted along the canal. Those cameras aren't accessible from the 'net however."

"And that bastard at the police station just sat across from me and lied like I couldn't tell the difference," Hubert said, "he even told me he spoke to the captain and confirmed the ship's position."

"He may well have," Jeremie said, "I did some checking, and it seems that a transponder belonging to the _Pride of Roarke_ passed around the Cape of Good Hope yesterday morning. But just now, I came across this."

Jeremie typed something, and a picture displayed. It was a picture of the deck of the _Roarke_. On the deck stood four figures, two large ones and two smaller ones, flanked by what looked like four armed guards. Jeremie clicked his mouse and the picture zoomed in on the four figures. The picture fuzzed out as the frame expanded, then resolved into a clearer shot. There, standing on the deck, looking out at the shore, almost directly into the camera, was Aelita, Yumi, Milly and Tamiya. All of the men in the room smiled. The girls were alive and relatively unharmed. And they were coming to Sin City.

"How did you get access to this?" Marv asked.

"XANA," was the reply.

"Well," said Marv, "we'll just have to throw them a welcoming party, won't we? And we'll have to do something extra special for the people who made the trip possible."

Miho smiled an ugly smile, matching Marv's. That smile, like laughter, was contagious. Quickly, everyone in the room was smiling the same, ugly smile.

* * *

The next morning, Odd and Ulrich were preparing to go downstairs and help Kadie clean up. Marv and Hubert just sat and waited. Jeremie was sweeping the 'net for anything on the girls. His vigilance paid off.

"Jackpot!" the genius suddenly hollered, pointing at the computer. Everyone walked over.

On his screen was a picture of Aelita, in full color. The picture he showed them just showed her face and head, but there were other pictures of her, pictures he wouldn't show anyone. Along with the picture was an announcement. Aelita and a bunch of other girls and children would be auctioned to the highest bidder tomorrow night, one day before the ship would dock.

"They're still going to be out at sea!" Odd said, "we'll never get to them in time!"

"This changes everything," Marv said, "I don't know how we're gonna get out there."

"Yes, it does change things," Hubert said. He pulled out his phone and dialed a number. After a moment, he spoke.

"Momo, Hubert. Drop what you're doing and get to Basin City, Washington as fast as you can. We need to crash a party at sea, so keep that in mind when you pack."

After he hung up, he said, "now we know when the sale is taking place. We now need to find out who is going and how they are getting there."

* * *

Marv and Hubert drove out to Sacred Oaks that evening to meet Hubert's friend, Momo. The man had called about an hour out to let them know he was arriving and where the plane would be.

"Hubert! Hubert! It's good to see you again!" exclaimed a small, mole-ish looking man as he got off the plane.

"Momo, it's good to see you too," Hubert replied, "and how is Tokyo?"

"Same as always. How's Yumi?"

"Fine. She's taken to Paris like a duck to water. I have to constantly watch her to make sure she doesn't buy everything in the stores."

Momo laughed. "Say, what are we going to do here? Is it gonna be like Tokyo was when you visited?"

"No, my friend, it will be much better. This time you get to blow things up."


	15. Final Preparations

Warning: Rated for language, violence and adult behavior.

The main characters of this story are based on characters from the cartoon 'Code Lyoko.' I do not own, nor do I claim, any copyright to these characters.

This story also uses characters from the graphic novel 'Sin City' by Frank Miller. I do not own, nor do I claim, any copyright to these characters.

This story also uses characters from the movie 'Wasabi', directed by Luc Besson. I do not own, nor do I claim, any copyright to these characters.

References to 'The Goon' in this story do not refer to the character of 'The Goon' by Eric Powell.

* * *

The day after the ship passed through the Panama Canal, the world ended.

Milly and Tamiya were trying their best to hold back their tears, but weren't succeeding. This morning when the guards came, they brought the girls' clothes, the ones they were kidnapped in, and told to change, they were being moved to another room for the rest of the trip.

"But we want to stay with Aelita and Yumi," Milly cried as the guards took them away.

Both Aelita and Yumi cried after they were gone. The separation meant that their time had just about run out.

Then the guards returned. They first grabbed Aelita and held her down while another man came in and put a pink collar around her neck. He then stepped back and pressed a button on a remote control, causing Aelita to scream in pain. Satisfied, the guards left and took Yumi with them. They explained that the Japanese girl was going to rejoin the others in preparation for the sale. Her task, to keep Aelita and the little ones docile, had been completed, now Pinkie was wearing the collar, and now she was going back to where she belonged.

As the door clanged shut, Aelita slumped down on the bunk. She was truly alone now. A living Hell was coming for her, and she would have to face it by herself.

* * *

Later, the boss invited Aelita to lunch.

They dined in his quarters, the most luxurious she had seen. The dinnerware was decent and the food tasted good, very good in fact. The only problem was the context and the company.

The boss almost literally looked like a pig wallowing in its slop. Bits and pieces of food fell out of his mouth as he chewed and talked. His shirt was stained by droppings. The picture she saw before her did nothing to improve her opinion of the man.

"Lonely? I could have one of the men come by and keep you entertained," the man said with a leer, "I might even be persuaded to pass the afternoon with you, if you asked me nicely."

"No thank you," Aelita said, not bothering to hide her disgust, "I'm sure you have more important matters that require your attention."

The pig laughed. "Yes I do, unfortunately. And I certainly don't want to spoil your value just before you're sold. The buyer would be most upset."

"Why did you move them? We did what you asked, even those filthy pictures. Would it have been so bad to keep us together until the end?"

"You're right, I could have kept you together, but the parting would have been all that much harder if I had. This way, you can process the grief of separation before you have to process the grief of your new life. I've actually done you a favor, if you think about it. Yes, you should be grateful I cared enough to let you stay with your friends, unharmed, then separated you before you were truly separated. You should be thanking me, not scolding me, my dear." His hand caressed the remote control by it, the one that controlled Aelita's collar.

"Thank you, sir," she said, not wanting to risk the man's displeasure at this point, "thank you for giving me these last few days with my friends. I truly appreciate your kindness."

She then gave him a wan smile, and he beamed one back at her. He obviously missed the sarcasm in her voice.

_I hope there's a special place in Hell for bastards like you_, Aelita thought, _and I hope you squeal like the pig you are when you finally get there._

_

* * *

_

Yumi was tossed into a room with six other girls around her and Aelita's age, the rest of the older girls that had been kidnapped.

"Well, the princess has returned," one of the girls said.

There had originally been ten of them. One, Samantha, Yumi found out from Aelita, had been murdered in front of the rest as an example of what resistance got them. Two more had died while 'entertaining' the crew. One of the surviving girls was there when it happened, and said the men didn't stop what they were doing, even after they realized she was dead. She then broke down and cried.

The door opened and suddenly the room was filled with the slavers. The girls screamed, Yumi included, as they came, grabbed each girl, and held them down. One man would then come up and put a collar around a girl's neck, similar to the one they put on Aelita earlier. He would then step back, press a button on a remote control, and the girl would scream and jerk about. Satisfied, he moved on to the next girl.

He did Yumi last. After he forced the collar around her throat, he stepped back and pressed the button. Suddenly, waves and waves of pain shot through her body, emanating from the collar. When the man released the button, the pain stopped.

"Now you understand how the collars work. Wonderful technology, used to break dogs from barking. We use them to keep bitches from making trouble."

The men laughed at the joke.

"You will be serving the guests at the party tonight. Obey like good little bitches and you won't get shocked. Disobey and guests will be placing bets on how long you'll take to die. We'll be back just before they start arrive to prepare you further."

* * *

Milly and Tamiya sat in the room alone. It was the room next door to Aelita's, but it might as well been on the moon.

"I'm scared," Milly said, "they're gonna do bad things to us, and nobody will be able to find us."

"I'm scared, too," Tamiya told her friend, "but I believe what Aelita said. I think Jeremie's out there, right now, tracking us down. I believe he got Marv, the police, Mr. Delmas, and the whole army out looking for us! You just wait, tonight when they come to take us away, Jeremie'll swoop down out of nowhere and teach those bad people a lesson they'll never forget!"

* * *

The fat man sat at his desk and sighed. After tonight, it would be over. Over three months, finding the stock, making sure they didn't have any close family, obtaining the supplies to control them; it would all come to fruition tonight. While the little ones should fetch a good price, either here or in Asia, the pink haired girl was the prize, the one that will put this run over the top.

He sighed once again as he looked at one of the pictures of the girl on his monitor, one that the photographer had taken during her session. The threat of hurting her friends had certainly brought out the vixen in the girl. Her face beckoned to him, calling him to take her; that she was moaning for him; that she wanted him, and him alone.

_If only it were true,_ he thought to himself, _but even if it was, I can't partake; it would only spoil your value._

Suddenly, the phone rang.

"Boss? Mr. Roarke's agent is on the line," came the voice.

"Patch him through," he replied.

"I take it my delivery is taking place as scheduled?" came a new voice, Mr. Roarke's agent.

"Yes, the two items are safe and secure, just waiting for Mr. Roarke," the fat man replied, "he saw the pictures? I take it he finds them acceptable?"

"More than acceptable," came the reply, "Mr. Roarke will not be able to come personally, however, but I will be out this evening to pick them up."

"Very good," the fat man said, "I hope you will avail yourself of our hospitality when you come. I'm having a party tonight, culminating in an auction of a very special item I picked up when I picked up Mr. Roarke's order."

"I can't guarantee anything," the voice said, "but I'll consider it." He hung up.

The fat man smiled as he turned back to the picture of Aelita. He sighed, then reached down into his pants to fantasize some more about the pink haired beauty, just next door.

He gazed into that face, into those eyes burning with true desire, desire he forced from the girl before its time. He asked himself, _who is it you're thinking of? Who are you longing for? Who is it you beckon with your eyes, your lips? Who do you truly want to give yourself to? Who is it you truly desire?_

As he climaxed, he fantasized that person was him.


	16. Crashing The Party

Warning: Rated for language, violence and adult behavior.

The main characters of this story are based on characters from the cartoon 'Code Lyoko.' I do not own, nor do I claim, any copyright to these characters.

This story also uses characters from the graphic novel 'Sin City' by Frank Miller. I do not own, nor do I claim, any copyright to these characters.

This story also uses characters from the movie 'Wasabi', directed by Luc Besson. I do not own, nor do I claim, any copyright to these characters.

References to 'The Goon' in this story do not refer to the character of 'The Goon' by Eric Powell.

* * *

"Please, Mistress! Please do it! I've been a good boy, honest!"

The bound man writhed in the agony of anticipation on the plastic sheet overing the floor as Gail stood over him. He was a grimy little worm, just like all the other grimy little worms that Gail serviced and made her living from. This little worm, however, had something she wanted, and badly. He had information.

"I don't think you've been a good boy, Marty," she said, "I think you've been touching yourself when I specifically commanded you not to."

"Oh, nonononono," he quickly replied, "I never touch myself unless you allow me. The last time I did was month ago!"

"And the last time I allowed you that pleasure was two months ago, bad boy!" she roared, "just for that, I'm going to whip your ass in punishment for disobeying me!"

She walked over to the table, where she kept her 'tools', and picked up a riding crop. She then went back over and proceeded to beat him with it. He writhed and cried as she worked, always seeming to get the part she struck in perfect alignment with her stroke. His cries were a mixture of pain and ecstasy.

When she finished, she held the tip of it to his face. He kissed and licked it reverently.

"You know, Marty, maybe you've been a good boy after all," Gail told the man, "you confessed your sins and took you punishment like a man, and that pleases me. So here's what I'm going to do. I need to know something, and you know what it is. Tell me what I want to know, and I'll give you what you want. But let me warn you, if you lie to me, I'll find out about it. If you lie to me, I'll never touch you again. I'll make you watch while I give everyone else in the world what they want, but never you. Do you understand me?"

"Yes, Mistress," Marty replied, almost sobbing.

Gail then removed her belt and skirt, standing naked before him except for her stockings and shoes. She walked up to him, the plastic tarp crinkling as she stepped, and placed herself almost directly over his head. He looked up and shuddered in anticipation.

"Marty, what I want to know is, where is your boss going tonight?"

Marty's eyes got wide. How did she know the boss was going anywhere tonight? He didn't even find out until this morning!

"I, I don't know, Mistress," was his reply, "I just found out that he was going out. I didn't get any more details."

"Yes you did," Gail purred, "he tells you everything. And here I thought you really wanted it so bad. I guess I was wrong." She stepped back and turned away from the man.

"Wait! Okay! He's going out on his yacht, on the _Electra!_ He's going to some kind of party at sea! That's all I know! Only the captain and he knows the exact location! Pleasepleaseplease! I told you all I know! Do it! DO IT!"

Gail smiled. What he just said jived with what Hubert and the others had figured out. She turned slowly back around and returned to the man. She stood over him as he looked up excitedly, expectantly. He was her dog, her worshiper. She looked down at him, his Mistress, his Goddess, and smiled beautifully at him as she gave him what begged for, what he desired most.

"Gooood boy," she purred as he writhed and wallowed.

* * *

Back at Kadie's, they waited. Odd helped Kadie downstairs. Ulrich helped too, until Miho came and they went up to the roof to practice. Jeremie sat at the computer, looking for that one vital piece of information that would give them the advantage against the slavers.

Momo had put his stuff away and crashed. Hubert just sat there, marking the seconds. Marv took the time cleaning he pistol he had brought back with him when he returned the day before. As he worked, he talked to it, apologizing for being gone so long and neglecting it. He called the gun Gladys.

Suddenly, there was a knock, then Gail walked into the room.

"I got it! Pier 32, the _Electra_. Bart Winslow is going to the auction tonight."

* * *

"You are not going, and that's that!" Marv roared at the boys, "this is no place for children!"

"If I remember correctly, there will be children on that ship," Jeremie said.

"You know what I mean!" was the huge man's reply. Marv hated shouting at the boys, especially like this, like his father did when he was young. He didn't blame them for wanting to go, they wanted to rescue their friends. But what was going to happen on that ship tonight was nothing innocent eyes should see. Marv was going to Hell for a lot of things he had done in his life, but he would not be the one who corrupted these good kids.

Hubert, Momo, Gail and Miho watched the argument in silence.

"Marv, there's no way you're leaving us out!" Ulrich said, the only way you're going to stop us is to chain us up!"

"Got that covered, if it comes down to it." To emphasize Marv's point, Gail held up three pair of handcuffs, all ready to use.

"Marv, I know you think we're kids, and I know you're trying to protect us," Jeremie said, "but the people we love are on that ship, and I for one will do anything, _anything_, to bring them back safely." He then added in a lower voice, "I will even give up my hope of Salvation to save her."

"And so will I," Ulrich added, "my life is nothing without her, and I haven't even told her yet. We're going."

Gail moved to the boys to secure them.

"No, don't," Marv said, a sad, tired look on his face, "I won't deny them their chance. I would slaughter up and down the streets of Sin City for the ones I loved. And what about you, Odd? Are you still in?"

"Yeah," he replied, "no one messes with my family and gets away with it, not if I can do something about it."

Suddenly, Hubert's cell phone rang.

"Hello? One moment. Jeremie, it's for you."

Jeremie took the phone. "Yes."

"Status," came the voice of XANA.

"Aelita is still on the ship. We have determined that is anchored ten miles off shore. They are going to sell her at auction tonight. We are making preparations to get her back."

"The deadline for returning Aelita has passed," XANA said.

"We told you days ago that we wouldn't make the deadline!" Jeremie shouted, "you were even the one that gave me the pictures from the Panama Canal! You knew we wouldn't be able to bring her back!"

There was silence on the other end of the line.

"Let me speak to Detective Fiorentini," XANA said.

Jeremie handed the phone back to Hubert.

"Fiorentini, what do you want?"

"Who is the individual standing next to you?" XANA asked.

Hubert was surprised by the question. He looked around, then decided XANA was referring to Momo.

"His name is Momo, and he is an old friend of mine."

"I wish to speak with Momo," XANA said.

The detective got a strange look on his face, then handed the phone to Momo. The moment Momo held the phone to his ear and said hello, a black cloud issued from the phone, enveloping the little man. Everyone in the room jumped back as the cloud entered him. He stood there a moment, his head slumped down, his eyes closed. Then, he raised up and opened his eyes.

His pupils were gone. In their place was the symbol of XANA's control of the man. XANA had possessed him.

"Now, we shall proceed to the ship to obtain Aelita," XANA said through Momo's mouth as he hung up the phone, "I have gathered the plan from this subject's mind, and it will have to do, given the limited resources at my disposal. I will allow this one mobility to perform his role in the plan and observe, but I reserve the right to take direct action when I feel it is necessary to return Aelita. And be advised that the other hostages are not a priority. Aelita must be rescued and returned to my default perceptual envelope or I will incinerate Paris."

* * *

Bart Winslow smiled in anticipation as his driver pulled up to the pier. He had never in his life seen a girl as beautiful as the one he saw in the message he received. She looked like she literally wanted Bart in her now! And a virgin on top of it! His dick got stiff just thinking about her.

"Marty, this is good. I'll walk on in from here," Winslow told his driver.

"You gonna need me for anythin' else, boss," Marty, the driver, asked.

"No, go on back to the house. I'll call when I get back. And have Anders prepare the 'special' guest room. I expect to be entertaining over the next few days."

"Yes, sir. I'll tell him as soon as I get back."

Bart got out of the car, grabbed his briefcase, and walked onto the pier, heading for the _Electra_. His mind had already raced ahead, past sailing to the auction, past buying the girl, to what he was going to do once he got her back on his yacht, then back to his home. He almost spent himself in anticipation.

Marty watched as his former employer walked off, a lamb to the slaughter. The driver didn't have to be told that trouble was brewing tonight, and he was the cause of it. By the time anyone thought to ask the faithful chauffeur what had happened to his boss, Marty would be across the border in Mexico. He'd rather rot in a Mexican jail, if it came down to it, than face whatever would come after tonight, especially if The Mistress was involved. Marty put the car in reverse and ran for his life.

Bart Winslow barely noticed his car speeding off into the night. He made his way to his yacht, noticing that it was still dark. He had specifically told the captain to be ready to cast off as soon as he arrived; it wasn't like him to be so lax. Maybe something was wrong, Bart hoped not. The last thing he wanted was to miss out on the bidding tonight.

"Ahoy, Captain! Prepare to cast off and get under way!" he called out as he came aboard. There was no one about, and that was strange. There should be at least two deck hands making ready to sail, and his butler should be here with his drink waiting for him. What was going on?

Winslow wandered around, looking for someone. He finally made his way to the bridge, surely someone was there!

When he entered, he saw the two deck hands, his butler and the captain on their knees, with their hands clasped behind their heads. That's when he felt the cold steel of a blade press against the side of his neck.

"Welcome aboard, Mr. Winslow," said a low gravely voice. A figure appeared from the shadows, a huge man, a monster. He smiled an evil smile, one that foretold pain and suffering.

"You don't mind if me and some friends hitch a ride with you? Our ride backed out at the last minute and we soooo wanted to make the party tonight. I hear it's gonna be a gas."


	17. Watch This

Warning: Rated for language, violence and adult behavior.

The main characters of this story are based on characters from the cartoon 'Code Lyoko.' I do not own, nor do I claim, any copyright to these characters.

This story also uses characters from the graphic novel 'Sin City' by Frank Miller. I do not own, nor do I claim, any copyright to these characters.

This story also uses characters from the movie 'Wasabi', directed by Luc Besson. I do not own, nor do I claim, any copyright to these characters.

References to 'The Goon' in this story do not refer to the character of 'The Goon' by Eric Powell.

* * *

Yumi was nervous. The level of activity had risen on the freighter over the last couple of hours. When she heard the telltale sound of the anchors being dropped, she knew they had arrived. Damnation would begin very soon now. 

The doors opened and the guards came in once again, evil leers on their faces.

"I'm going to be passing something out to you bitches, and you better do what we tell you with them! If you don't do it, we'll do it for you! Please make us do it for you, please?" They all laughed.

Each of the girls was given something. When Yumi got hers, she took a long look at it. It looked like some kind of thong bikini bottom, but there was some kind of plastic protrusion in the crotch. I couldn't be underwear, it was too uncomfortable looking.

"Now, strip off your clothes and put those on! That's right girls, you put them on," the guard said, " and yes, it goes on the inside. And here's what it does."

He held up another remote control and pressed the button on it. Suddenly, the thing in Yumi's hands buzzed. She shrieked and dropped the thing, to the laughter of everyone else in the room, girls included.

"Pick it up and put it on, mama-san," the guard said, "it won't hurt. Who knows, by the time the night's over, you just might come to like it."

The men laughed again at the word play.

Yumi put the thing on, the other girls following suit. She knew if she didn't, the guards would just force her, degrading her more in the process. It was uncomfortable, like she thought it would be, but she would just have to endure. By the end of the night, it would probably be the least of her worries.

The head guard seemed a little disappointed by the girls compliance, but said, "okay, everybody file out! The guests are arriving and you'll be serving drinks and _hors d'oeuvres_ to them, at least until the door prizes are awarded! Move it!"

As Yumi passed by, the man pressed the button on the remote, causing her to jump. She wasn't hurt by it, but it was definitely a surprise.

"Shake your ass and move it, mama-san!" he said, laughing, "the guests are a waitin'!"

* * *

Does anybody know where we are going? And is there any kind of recognition signal?" Hubert asked no one in particular.

"Here," Jeremie said, "the captain printed it out and had it on his desk."

On the paper was the heading and location of the meet, along with the recognition protocol. So far, so good.

"Everybody's tied up below," Gail said, "I still don't know what we're going to do with them once we're finished."

"Winslow and the other 'guests' are just as guilty as the slavers are," Marv said, "I don't see any reason why we have to leave them out of what's comin'."

"What you are saying is we murder innocent people," Hubert said. He, the XANA-fied Momo, Odd and Jeremie had changed into evening wear. Hubert would be impersonating Bart Winslow, Momo would play his manservant, and the boys would play his sons, out with their father for a 'special' treat.

"To my mind, they are just as guilty as whoever took those kids," Marv said, "if it weren't for scum like them, the slavers wouldn't be doing this. Somethin' else, maybe, but not this."

"Marv, I agree with Hubert," Jeremie said, "what ever happened to 'innocent until proven guilty?'"

"What about 'you shall know them by their fruit'," Marv said, exasperated, "alright, I won't do anything rash, for now. But these bastards are going to pay, I'll guarantee that."

* * *

Aelita pulled at the collar around her neck. It wasn't too tight, but it did chafe her.

The boss came in earlier and told the girl how the evening would unfold. First, the guests would mingle, being served by the older girls. After a while, they would sit down to dinner and entertainment. Oh, no need to worry, he said, the entertainment would be broadcast in from Bangkok. After the main course, and before dessert, they would give out the door prizes, the older girls. The pig went into great detail how the winner would determine which lucky girl he would be going home with. And then came the auction. They would sell the little ones first, except for Aelita's friends. Then, at last, the climax of the event, her sale. He told the girl that some of the pictures they had taken earlier had been blown up and posted all around the dining room. He said he had outdone himself this time around, that the evening was going to be a glorious success, and it was all due to Aelita and her alluring beauty.

Aelita tried as hard as she could not to vomit in the man's face. He was going on and on about how perfect everything was, not caring a whit about the suffering he was about to inflict.

As he left, Aelita slumped to the cot. Her end was about here, and she couldn't face it.

_Oh God, whoever You are, wherever You're at, spare us this._

Aelita had never prayed before, the concept of a Supreme Being was a new one to her. There were so many to choose from, some not even worshiped any more. But she was standing before the abyss, with no hope of rescue. So she prayed that Someone out there would intercede and rescue them all, even if that rescue meant their deaths.

As she slumped there, hope all but gone, the darkness and silence lifted, for just a moment, as something she couldn't see joined her in her prison. It felt like arms wrapped around her, holding her close. She could almost see a smile, a face, with a twinkle in its eyes. She almost heard a voice say, _watch this._

Aelita then heard the sound of distant gunfire.

* * *

The _Electra_ pulled up along side of the _Roarke_. The crew tossed the mooring lines over, and they were secured.

Hubert had them come in last, to make sure all of the other guests had arrived. If they were going to do this thing, they were going to get everybody at the same time.

Hubert, Momo, Odd and Jeremie crossed over onto the freighter. There, Hubert showed a man his invitation, and more importantly, the briefcase of cash Winslow brought with him. The man smiled, wished Hubert and company a good time, and they entered the party.

The greeter died two minutes later when Ulrich crept up on him and ran him through with the katana that Miho gave him. In the meantime, she was busy taking out the perimeter guards with well placed arrows. Ulrich crept forward and checked ahead for company. Seeing that the coast was clear, he waived the rest forward. Marv, Gail and some other girls from Old Town moved in.

"Alright, Ulrich, you stay here with Miho. When she finishes up, you two will sweep up any stragglers. No one raises an alarm or this is going to hell before it even starts. Gail, you take the girls and go find the kids. Get them back to the _Electra_. Once they're safe, go help 'the Winslows.'"

"And what'll you do, Marv," Gail asked.

"I'm gonna have a word with the captain."

* * *

"Jeremie, quit staring!" Odd told his 'brother'.

"I can't help it, they're all over the place!" was the reply from the genius.

What had caught Jeremie's eye was the huge picture of Aelita placed on the wall before them. The picture literally covered the wall from floor to ceiling, and for a length of ten feet. It was printed on some kind of translucent paper, and was backlit. The face that had captured Jeremie's heart so long ago and the body that had recently fired his imagination now lay there before him, larger than life, beckoning to the world.

"Jeremie, if you don't pull it together, we're gonna get caught!" Odd told his friend.

"Somehow, I don't think so," Hubert said.

It seemed Jeremie wasn't the only one entranced by the pink haired siren. Other men and woman stood before the picture and dreamed. Some were even playing with themselves as they fantasized, not caring who saw.

Yumi, in the meantime, was making the rounds of the room, carrying a tray of cheese and crackers. it was the seventh tray she carried so far, and it wasn't too terribly bad. The collar she wore chafed her neck. Her feet hurt and she was getting tired of getting pinched in the butt. It didn't help that the tips she got were taken immediately by the maitre d' when she came back.

_Remember, Yumi,_ she thought to herself, _if you get out of this alive, never become a waitress._

The thong was rubbing her the wrong way too. Every now and then it would buzz, and she would jump to the snickers of the guests around her. She was getting tired of being humiliated in that way, and she was growing afraid, because the sensations the thong was causing were affecting her in a way she never expected. She was actually starting to _enjoy_ the sensations the vibrations made in her. She looked around at the other girls and say they were having similar problems. One had collapsed and was having what looked like a grand mal seizure, but Yumi realized she wasn't. She looked around and saw that the head guard was standing over at a table and pressing down on a button on a remote, presumably the one controlling the writhing girl's thong. The girl was now screaming out as she thrashed about, the gathered crowd laughing as they enjoyed the show.

She made he way through the crowd, swaying her hips to avoid getting pinched, trying not to become the next floor show. Suddenly, she noticed something. Standing over by that obscene picture of Aelita was two _boys._ One of them was small, had blond hair and glasses. He was staring open mouthed at the picture, pig that he was. Next to him was another boy, also blond, a little taller than the first. He was talking insistently to the smaller boy, no doubt telling him what he was going to do to her when they won the girl.

Then reality turned ninety degrees, and she recognized them.

_Jeremie? Odd?_

Moving slowly, so as not to raise suspicions, she walked towards the boys. Her mind raced, _it can't be them! How could they have found us? _Then, _oh God, oh God, let it be them, please! I'll be a good little girl, a proper daughter to my parents, pleasepleaseplease, let it be them!_

When she was about six feet away from them, she was stopped by another guest, who took a handful of crackers along with a handful of her ass. She squealed loudly as he pinched, smiling as he did. She almost hauled off and belted him, shock collar or no. But the urge passed when she saw both boys staring straight at her, wide eyed and open mouthed.

"Yumi!" Jeremie cried out.

"You're naked!" cried Odd.

That's when World War III broke out.


	18. The Arms Of Tarnished Angels

Warning: Rated for language, violence and adult behavior.

The main characters of this story are based on characters from the cartoon 'Code Lyoko.' I do not own, nor do I claim, any copyright to these characters.

This story also uses characters from the graphic novel 'Sin City' by Frank Miller. I do not own, nor do I claim, any copyright to these characters.

This story also uses characters from the movie 'Wasabi', directed by Luc Besson. I do not own, nor do I claim, any copyright to these characters.

References to 'The Goon' in this story do not refer to the character of 'The Goon' by Eric Powell.

* * *

The man grumbled as he dragged the two girls along.

_Next time, Junior can get his own doxies_, he thought to himself, _the yellow bastard_.

Milly and Tamiya were gagged; their hands tied together. A lead went from their bound wrists to the man's hand, and he used it to near drag the two girls along. They screamed and cried as best they could from behind their gags, but it didn't slow the man down a bit.

He finally made it to the hatch where he had entered earlier. Standing there was a deckhand, no more than a boy himself.

"You there! Boy! I was told someone would be here to see I got on my way!" the man called out.

"Yes, sir, you came to the right place," Ulrich Stern replied as Miho separated the man's head from his body. Miho kicked the chattering head over the side, leaving him with the task of heaving the spurting body over.

When he turned back around, he realized that the two little girls were Milly Solovieff and Tamiya Diop. They screamed when he turned around, all drenched in the man's blood and gore.

"It's okay! It's me, Ulrich!" he said to the girls. He slowly walked over to them and removed their gags, then untied their hands. Now that he was closer, both girls recognized him and threw themselves at him, heedless of the mess that covered him.

"Oh, Ulrich, it was awful!" Milly cried, "they took us and poked and prodded us and were gonna do bad things to us!"

"And they did do bad things to Yumi," Tamiya added, "and they made Aelita do nasty things too."

"You're gonna get them, aren't you, Ulrich," Milly said, "you're gonna make them sorry they did this to us, aren't you?"

"Yes, I am," Ulrich replied, "and so are Odd and Jeremie and Marv, too. When we're through, the bad people are gonna wish they never even thought of this."

Behind him, Miho stood silently, her face a mask of terrible retribution, ready to fall on the wicked.

* * *

As Gail rounded a corner, she was confronted by two guards. They just stared at her while she stitched them with her machine gun.

_Well, there goes the element of surprise_, she thought.

The two girls that followed her sprinted ahead. They came to an open doorway just as another guard stuck his head out to see what the fuss was about. He got his brains splattered on the wall for his trouble.

The girls ducked in the room and began firing. Gail moved in to support them, but found they didn't need any help. The room was a Rorschach blot of blood and bodies. One of the girls had already searched the room for survivors, then signaled the all clear. The three then proceeded down the hall.

At the other end, they met up with the three girls Gail had sweep the floor below. They were quickly followed by three other girls, leading a line of children.

"Get them back to the yacht, then two of you stay to watch them!" Gail said to her troops. Then to the little ones, she said, "don't worry girls, we're here to take you back to your mommies. You go with the girls that brought you out, and we'll get going as soon as we take care of the rest."

"Lady, are you an angel?" one of the children said in unsteady English.

Gail smiled, "you could say that, honey. But we're tarnished angels, though. We're here to make sure the bad people don't tarnish any of you angels. Now you move along and we'll get you home soon."

* * *

Marv was half way to the bridge when he heard gunfire.

_Damn, too soon!_ he thought as he raced the rest of the way.

He burst onto the bridge just as the captain was getting the first reports of an assault. Marv pulled his guns and fired. Each shot took out one crew member. The captain stared at the big man, unharmed, as Marv walked up to him and brought his massive fist down on the man's head.

After securing the captain, Marv reloaded and moved on. His next stop was the radio shack. He killed the radioman just as he starting to send out an SOS. Marv then destroyed the radio equipment and moved on. There was a lot of crew left to neutralize, and they had to quickly get control of the the engine room.

They tried jumping him in the engine room. One of them tried braining him with a massive wrench. Marv dodged the blow and shot the man in the face at point blank range. His head exploded.

Marv emptied his guns again as he killed the rest of the crew. There was one man left when he ran out, a brawny man, used to heavy lifting. The man bellowed and charged him, aiming to crush Marv's skull with a pipe he picked up.

Marv met the man and blocked his blow, staggering him with his parry. The man put up a valiant struggle, but he wasn't a killer; despite his strength, he never squeezed a man's life out with his bare hands before. But Marv had. Marv twisted and clutched as the man finally broke his hold and tried to claw Marv's hands away from his throat. Marv laughed as the man choked and gurgled, as the life slowly fled from him. As Marv's opponent finally went limp in death, he wept, for there were no men left to kill.

* * *

When he heard the gunfire, Hubert shouted, "now, Momo!"

He then pulled out two pistols and began firing at the guards. Momo, in the meantime, pulled his own firearm and fired.

The guests screamed and panicked and ran for the doors, blocking Hubert's aim. The other guards in the room took no notice, they began firing through the crowd at the two men. Hubert ducked down, sighted, and shot one of the guards.

When Hubert started firing, Odd and Jeremie sprinted over to Yumi, knocking her down. She screamed at the indignity inflicted on her by her friends, and tried to tell them to let her up, or at least move their hands. But every time she tried, Odd forced her head back down, shouting, "stay down, Yumi! We didn't come half way around the world to see you die!"

Hubert and Momo kept on laying down fire. Each time one of their guns sounded, a slaver dropped dead. Soon, almost all of the slavers had been killed.

As soon as the smoke cleared, Jeremie shot up and ran from the room. Yumi struggled with Odd for a moment, managing to throw him off. The next thing she did was to remove that damnable thong, heedless of the view she was providing the room. Just as she threw the vile thing to the floor, she screamed as the collar around her throat shocked her.

As she writhed in agony, Momo walked up to her. He squat down and stared in her face. Even in her agony, Yumi recognized him. Not the man, but the thing controlling the man, XANA.

XANA watched impassively as Yumi flailed in pain. It had wanted an outcome like this many times, but had never been able to achieve it. Now, its enemy lay defeated at its feet, dying by inches.

But XANA didn't defeat her. XANA wasn't killing her.

Momo reached out and grabbed the collar, the electricity flowing into him as well as the girl. XANA concentrated and located the transmitter of the signal activating the collar. It then sent out a bolt of purple energy to the source, to the last surviving guard, holding Yumi's remote. The energy engulfed him and killed him, his screams filling the room. XANA didn't relent until he was silent and smoke was rising from the body. It then snapped the collar from around the girl's neck.

As XANA once again looked at Yumi through Momo's eyes, it said, "no one shall deny me my prey, no one."

Momo then stood up and took out after Jeremie.

* * *

Jeremie ran down the hall, trying every door he came to. They all were unlocked so far, and none of them contained Aelita. He ran on, looking for her, the object of his desire, the balancing half of his equation.

He finally came to a locked door. He pounded on it, calling out her name, and was rewarded by her voice calling in response. He then frantically cast about, looking for something to open the door with.

"Why don't you try using the key?" came a voice behind him.

He turned around and saw the fattest man he had ever seen. The man was more like a hog than a man. The man held a gun in his hand, pointing it at Jeremie.

"You must be him," the man said, "the one she desires most in the world. I'm happy to make your acquaintance, boy. Now take the key and open the door. I wouldn't want to spoil the reunion."

The man held out a key chain with a key on it. Carefully, Jeremie reached out and took it from him. The piggish man stepped back, still pointing the gun at the boy, and Jeremie opened the door.

"Carefully now, step inside," the man commanded.

Jeremie stepped inside the room, and there she was, Aelita, his friend, his love, his life. He ran over to her and took her in his arms and embraced her like he had always wanted, but feared to. She cried as she returned his embrace, then buried her head in his neck, weeping in joy of their reunion. All the while, the fat man stood in the doorway, watching them.

"How touching," he said, "I envy you, boy. I took her and forced her to feel the things she felt, the things I caught in those pictures. But it wasn't me she felt them for. It wasn't _me_ she desired. Even now, as I'm about to snuff your lives out, her face, her body, beckons me, makes me wish that I was the one she wants, only me. She will haunt my dreams for the rest of my life, but it's not me she wants, and never will be. Kiss her one last time, boy. Hold her close, feel her smooth skin. With your final breath, accept what she gives you and only you; accept her love."

The man raised the gun, taking careful aim. Seeing that the end had come, Aelita turned Jeremie to her, placed his hands on her bare chest, then drew him close and kissed him passionately, the way she longed to do, for the last time. He returned her embrace, her love, glad that they finally could share it, and sad it had to end so soon. They embraced, two lovers, and waited for the gunshots that would end both of them.

They never came. Instead, they heard a gurgle and a heavy weight hit the floor.

Jeremie whirled around, removing his hands from her breasts, and saw Momo standing in the doorway, over the fat man. Aelita looked at the strange man and quickly recognized XANA's possession of him.

"So Aelita, do you still think they're worth saving?"


	19. Smoldering Eyes

Warning: Rated for language, violence and adult behavior.

The main characters of this story are based on characters from the cartoon 'Code Lyoko.' I do not own, nor do I claim, any copyright to these characters.

This story also uses characters from the graphic novel 'Sin City' by Frank Miller. I do not own, nor do I claim, any copyright to these characters.

This story also uses characters from the movie 'Wasabi', directed by Luc Besson. I do not own, nor do I claim, any copyright to these characters.

References to 'The Goon' in this story do not refer to the character of 'The Goon' by Eric Powell.

* * *

Marv entered the room where the party had been held. He took one look at the huge picture of Aelita, gave a low whistle, then tore it from the wall.

"Damn, that's the last thing I need to be looking at tonight! You lot go 'round this room and rip all those things down! She's a good friend of yours, and you shouldn't be seeing her like this!"

Odd, Ulrich and Yumi nodded and set to work. When Ulrich came in the room a few moments before, Yumi ran and threw herself into his arms, wrapping herself around him, heedless of the blood and worse covering him and her nakedness. They embraced, their first kiss, and the world vanished except for each other. After a moment, she released him and stepped back. He eyed her up and down, smiling at her and her condition, then stripped off the blood soaked tee shirt he wore and gave it to her. She accepted his gift and put it on like she had been given her wedding dress. Though it only covered her upper body, she felt as though she were dressed like a queen at her finest. Ulrich rummaged around and managed to find a pair of pants to add to her ensemble.

While the kids were working, Hubert walked over to Marv.

"Where are the others?" he asked.

"Gail and the others are rounding up the guests and the remaining crew," Marv replied, "the guests are going to be enjoying the accommodations the girls had on the trip over. I told Gail to bring the surviving slavers and the older girls back here."

* * *

"So Aelita, do you still think they're worth saving?" XANA's question still rang in the air.

The XANA possessed man stood there in the doorway, awaiting an answer.

"Yes, I do," she replied simply.

"Even after all you have experienced? This should have been a revelation to you as to just how hopeless mankind is. Look at the things you were made to do. Remember what happened to your friends, what was going to happen to them. I have searched the memories of this subject, and found memories of past evils he has seen, and has done himself. This is the world you are trying to protect, Key Holder. A world full of danger, a world full of evil and corruption. Let me end it. Give me your keys, and I will cause all of this suffering to end. Yes, people will die, but it will be over quickly, and I shall not take sick pleasure doing it."

"No, I won't," she replied quietly, "there's still good in them, there's still hope. They all aren't monsters. If I gave you what you want, you would destroy them all, the bad and the good."

"It makes no difference," XANA replied, "one small change and even Jeremie would be the one doing the raping and murdering."

"You may be right, but he didn't. He's never intentionally hurt me. He came half way around the world to save me. There is hope for them, for all of us. Even now, I have more hope that the world will be a better place than it was a week ago."

"And why is that?" XANA asked.

Aelita looked the man in the face, and gave her foe a smile. "Because you came half way around the world to save me too."

* * *

Everybody was gathered in the room now. The rest of the gang had been tied up and now lay at the feet of their former playthings. Gail had gotten clothes for the girls and removed the cursed shock collars. All the girls pulled of the thongs they were forced to wear, casting the vile things from them like serpents.

Momo dragged the boss into the room to join his men, followed by Aelita and Jeremie. Jeremie and XANA had managed to find clothes for Aelita, and she had dressed. The rest of the gang ran over and embraced them, finally together. Momo turned to Jeremie and Aelita and said, "my presence here is no longer necessary. I will take no action against Paris. For now, I will take no action at all. Return quickly however, for my patience is not infinite."

Momo then staggered as the phantasm rose from him and dissipated. He almost fell over, but caught himself and stood up. He looked around the room, getting his bearings.

"Hey, how did I get here?" Momo said to the room, "Hubert, did I miss all the fun?"

"Not quite," Hubert said, smiling at his friend, "we still haven't blown anything up yet. Why don't you go and change that."

Momo smiled and went about his task.

They took stock of the prisoners they had. Ten of the slavers had survived; with the boss and the photographer, making twelve survivors.

Some of the girls cried as the men were laid before them, still frightened. Gail turned to Marv, Hubert and the boys and said, "leave. What happens next is none of your business."

Marv and Hubert nodded and turned to go. Jeremie, Ulrich and Odd stood there, dumbfounded.

"What's going on?" Odd asked, "why do we need to go?"

"Boys, let's go," Hubert told them, "these men are about to reap the fruits of their labors. It is not our place to be here, nor would I want to stay. Now come along, all of you."

Still bewildered, the boys followed the men and left.

* * *

After the men left, Gail had one of the girls shut and lock the door. She then walked over and stood before the condemned men.

"You came here tonight, with girls you stole from a foreign land, children, and made ready to commit them to Hell. You ripped one of the most precious things they had from them, their innocence. You made them do vile things to please you, and you were planning on selling them to others so they could have their sick fantasies played out. You came here to do your business because you thought no one would either know or they wouldn't care. You were wrong on both parts."

"We knew you were coming. We've known about you ever since your ship left France. And we care. Every whore in here has a reason why she is what she is; but we all remember back before, when we too were innocent, and we remember when that innocence was torn away from us and how painful it was. And we will never stand by and allow it to happen to other girls, not if we can do something about it."

"If you had brought other prostitutes here, things would have been different. That would have been a turf war, and you would just be dead. But you brought children here to be raped and abused, to be your playthings. Now, you're going to wish for a quick death. You all are going to repay in some small insignificant measure, the damage you caused these girls, and the damage you almost caused those children."

Gail then walked over to one of the slavers, pulled out a revolver she brought just for the occasion, and emptied it into the man's gut. As he screamed she opened the cylinder and reloaded, then moved to the next man and emptied it into his groin. She went to each male slaver who had participated in the raping and gut shot them or castrated them, leaving a massive wound in each. Soon the room was filled with the men's cries of pain and anguish.

When she finally got to the photographer and the boss, Aelita called out, "don't. Don't do that to them."

Gail turned to the pink haired girl and said, "why not? This fat turd was the cause of all of this! He planned it, he put it together! You of all people should be the last person to defend him! I saw those pictures; he and this other little pissant raped you just as throughly as the other girls, they just didn't use their dicks to do it!"

"You're right, they did," Aelita said, "but it was me they did it to. If one of the other girls say that either of them so much as touched her, I'll shut up. Otherwise, I want them."

None of the other girls spoke up. After a moment of silence, other than the moans of the dying, Gail said, "okay, they're yours."

* * *

Marv, Hubert and the boys went down to where the guests had been secured. Bart Winslow and his crew had been added to the crowd after the ship was secured.

Hubert opened the door, and Marv framed himself in it. The guests weren't brave or strong men, they were only rich and perverted. None of them made a move to rush the door.

"You fine people came here tonight hoping to buy human life," the big man said, "happens all the time in Sin City, I know that. But what makes this different is you reached out to innocent kids, nice kids, and dragged them into your filth. For that, you deserve to die."

Someone in the crowd moaned in despair.

"However," Marv continued, "I've been convinced by some of the others to spare you the slaver's fate. I won't kill you. God Almighty will decide your fate."

"We are sinking this ship. Even now, the scuttling charges are being set. Before we do, we'll blow the door off this room. There are no life preservers, no lifeboats, nothing like that, so you'll have to swim for it. The shore is ten miles from here, in one direction or another. Perhaps, maybe, the Coast Guard will arrive and fish you out; if so, consider yourselves lucky, and I'll just have to be satisfied with that. If not, well, I'll be satisfied with that, too."

With that, Marv closed and locked the door.

"Did you really mean that?" Odd asked the man.

"Every word. Hubert, when your friend finishes below, have him rig a small charge on the door, just like I said. Set it to go off just before the others do. If God has the stomach for it, He can save them."

* * *

The fat man and the photographer babbled and cried as the girls purged their demons. After Gail had shot the first slaver, one of the former slaves ran up to him, viciously kicking him in the open wound in his gut. She pulled out part of his entrails as she withdrew her foot. She then proceeded to kick and hit him, over and over, pulling his intestines out as she did.

The other six quickly followed suit. They were all over the helpless men, screaming and hitting, pulling and biting. One girl managed to yank out a man's testicle, then jammed it down his throat. Another pulled on a man's intestine, then wrapped it around his neck to strangle him. Another managed to find a shock collar and its matching controller. She took the thing and jammed it into the ruined groin of one of the men, then proceeded to shock him, laughing as the jolts added to his agony.

And Yumi joined in the orgy of revenge, helped by her friend, guardangel.

Yumi was shocked, surprised and embarrassed when she recognized Miho. The girl just smiled and embraced her friend. She then stepped back, and offered Yumi one of her short swords, so she too could purge her demons. Yumi accepted the gift and turned to one of the slavers, the first man to rape her. She walked up to him and plunged the blade into his abdomen. Yumi kept trying to drive the blade through him, but the floor underneath stopped her. Miho came up to the girl, put her hands gently on the hilt over Yumi's, and helped the girl twist the sword in the man's guts. He howled at the fire they caused him. Miho helped her friend, like a mother would teach a baby, and Yumi learned and purged, as the man suffered and died.

Finally, it was over. Except for the boss and the photographer, all of the slavers were dead, at the hands of their victims. They stood over their tormentors, bathed in their blood and viscera, and wept that what they had done had not erased the stain on their souls.

Aelita stood aside and watched the whole spectacle. She was repulsed by what she saw, horrified that her friend joined in. And she was ashamed for what she was about to do.

Aelita had asked Gail for something, and the woman sent one of the others off to get it. In the meantime, while the slavers had died, Aelita gathered up all of the pictures of her that had been printed, then located the computer that stored the images, and brought them to the charnel house. She had the boss and the photographer sat up, and surrounded them with the pictures and equipment. All around them was Aelita's face, lost in forced orgasm. Her smoldering eyes, burning with passion, stared back at them. Beyond that circle of her beauty was the ugliness of the other girls' vengeance.

The girl Gail sent out returned, carrying cans of gasoline. Gail handed one to Aelita, and the pink haired girl set to work. Starting at the door, she walked all around the room, carefully pouring the gasoline on the bodies. Every now and then she would make a little puddle of gas on the floor, then move on. Finally, she came to the fat man and his photographer. She poured the gasoline on all of the pictures, all of the equipment, then soaked their legs and pants with the fuel.

"I'm ready," was all she said. Gail and all of the other girls filed out of the room, careful not to step in the trail of gasoline that Aelita had so carefully laid down. Aelita then made her way to the door, stopping when she got there. Gail stood there, waiting for her. When she got to the door, Gail gave Aelita something. A lighter.

"You said I would haunt your dreams for the rest of your life," Aelita said to the fat man, "then spend the last few minutes of your life gazing at me. Look into my eyes, full of the lust you forced out of me, and burn in their fires forever."

Aelita then lit the lighter, bent down and touched the flame to the beginning of the trail of gasoline she so carefully laid down. The fire jumped to life and raced down the trail she blazed, setting bodies on fire, then the room, then the pictures and equipment, and ultimately the boss and his henchman. Aelita gave her rapists one last look as they screamed, then turned and left, shutting the door.

As he died, all the fat man could see was Aelita's eyes, smoldering in lust, in desire. The fire in her eyes reached out to him, engulfing his legs, his groin, his body.

He screamed as her smoldering eyes ushered him into the depths of Hell.


	20. Hard Goodbyes

Warning: Rated for language, violence and adult behavior.

The main characters of this story are based on characters from the cartoon 'Code Lyoko.' I do not own, nor do I claim, any copyright to these characters.

This story also uses characters from the graphic novel 'Sin City' by Frank Miller. I do not own, nor do I claim, any copyright to these characters.

This story also uses characters from the movie 'Wasabi', directed by Luc Besson. I do not own, nor do I claim, any copyright to these characters.

References to 'The Goon' in this story do not refer to the character of 'The Goon' by Eric Powell.

* * *

Marv stood on the bridge of the _Pride of Roarke_. He looked at the captain, shackled in the Captain's Chair, glaring back at him.

"Any last words?" the big man asked.

"Why are you doing this?" the captain replied, "my men and I had nothing to do with what went on down there."

"But you knew it was happening," Marv said, "you knew it and you allowed it. A Captain is responsible for everything that happens on his ship, isn't that right? Well, that makes you responsible for the raping, too. Just consider yourself lucky you aren't getting what the slavers got. I was two levels down and still heard their screaming."

Marv turned and walked away. When he got to the door, he turned back and said, "a Captain should go down with his ship, so I'll let you do just that. Goodbye."

* * *

Gail had taken a head count on the _Electra_, and accounted for everyone except Marv. She was just about to send Miho out after the big lug when he stepped onto the deck from the _Roarke_.

"Everybody on board?" he asked.

"Yeah, now that you're here," Gail replied, smiling in relief.

"Good, let's get the hell out of here."

Gail turned and shouted at someone, and they heard the engines start. As the yacht pulled away from the freighter, loud explosions sounded from within her. The _Pride of Roarke_ listed and started sinking in the water.

Moments after the explosions occurred, people started pouring out of the ship, the party guests. They jumped into the water, then flailed about, trying to make distance from the doomed vessel. A small number was able to make it well away from the _Roarke_ before she sank and sucked the rest down with her. Voices called out into the night, pleading for rescue, offering any amount of money for salvation.

The _Electra_ sailed away into the night.

* * *

Bart Winslow swam as fast as his arms and legs could propel him. He knew if he stayed too close the the freighter, it would pull him down with it when it sank. He churned through the sea like an Olympic swimmer racing for the gold medal, the prize in this case being his life.

As he swam, he felt the suction of the _Pride of Roarke's_ dying. He pulled harder, thinking he hadn't swam far enough, but he had. the suction eased as the _Roarke_ slipped into oblivion, leaving him safe.

He stopped to catch his breath and get his bearings. In the distance, he saw his ship, the _Electra_, pull away from the disaster. He waived and he hollered, threatening terrible vengeance, promising fabulous rewards, if they would only turn around and get him. Other voices joined him in his pleas.

The ship never stopped. Soon, it disappeared over the horizon.

He stared at where the _Electra_ had disappeared as he tread water. He heard nothing but waves and the wailing of the other survivors. He looked around him, trying to see if there was any indication of land. All he saw was water, water everywhere.

He startled when he felt something rough brush against his leg. He turned about, trying to see what it was, when he saw the distinctive triangle shape of a shark's fin cutting the water close to him.

The Landlords had come for their rent.

Panicked, he turned and swam for his life. He saw more fins, and saw them gnashing and tearing at the bodies that were floating on the surface, attacking the other survivors bobbing in the water. He heard their screams as they were attacked, torn apart and eaten. He swam on, knowing full well he couldn't out run them, that he was only drawing them toward him.

He screamed when one of the predators clamped down on his entire abdomen, sinking its razor sharp teeth into his flesh, then lifting him out of the water and thrashing its head about, sawing his body in two.

The last sight Bart Winslow's mind registered was another shark engulfing his head and clamping down on his upper chest.

* * *

Now that the ordeal had passed, the kidnapped girls began to process what had happened to them, and what they had done. More than a few vomited, all of them cried. Gail and the other girls comforted them as best they could, telling them that what was done was done, and there would be healing and closure to all of this.

The young girls were faring better. Other than being kidnapped and poked and prodded, nothing traumatic happened to them. The girls kept telling the little ones that they would see their parents real soon, and that Hubert was a police officer that came all the way from Paris to make sure they got back safe. After that, the girls settled down, and the only thing the adults had to worry about was one of them getting hurt on the yacht.

Aelita sat with Jeremie, crying her grief out. He held her close, the smell of gasoline and burnt meat wafting from her, and told her everything would be okay. He stroked her hair, and kissed the top of her head and hugged her tighter, as if that would squeeze the pain out of her faster.

Yumi sat with Ulrich and Miho, both holding the Japanese girl as she cried out her pain and anguish. She buried her face in Ulrich's bare chest and held him tight, and he wrapped his arms around her and stroked her hair. Miho held them both, a reassuring presence.

Odd stood on the railing watching the sea go by. Aelita had told him that Samantha had been one of the girl's taken, and then about her murder. It hit the boy harder than he expected. Even though they broke up a year ago, he still had a place in his heart for her, a place that was now permanently void. As he looked out on the sea, he cried for her, cried that she was gone, that they couldn't even exchange insults. He cried because he realized he still loved her.

Hubert had Momo set course for Seattle. They would contact the French Consulate there and get the girls home as quick as they could. They would also contact the Coast Guard and tell them of the loss of the _Roarke_. Fiorentini was certain that matters could be smoothed over in the spirit of international cooperation.

* * *

The public went wild when the news of the rescue was published. According to the press, French police, working in conjunction with 'unamed US Law Enforcement personnel' swooped down on the _Pride of Roarke_ and recovered all of the victims still surviving. The ensuing gun battle claimed the life of every slaver on board, as well as the crew and the ship.

Hubert Fiorentini was extensively interviewed as the lead investigator of the French contingent. He said nothing to disabuse the press of what had happened, saying 'no comment' to specific questions as to who all was involved.

Before they were sent home, the press had managed to interview some of the children who had been kidnapped. They told a story of how they were taken and locked in the ship, and how tarnished angels swept down from Heaven and rescued them, punishing the bad men in the process. The reporters tried to tell the kids that the police were the ones who rescued them, but one girl said no, it was angels, she had asked and one said they were tarnished angels. The reporters just scratched their heads.

Some of the reporters found out that the ship was destined for Basin City, and contacted the police department for a statement. Commissioner Lebowitz made a statement that, yes, he had spoken to Detective Fiorentini on the matter, but he couldn't comment any further. The press took that to mean that the Basin City Police Department had played a major role in the affair, but had to keep their involvement quiet.

In later months, Lebowitz would reveal that they indeed had been involved in the raid, and painted a lurid picture of how he, personally, confronted and killed the head of the gang, shooting in self-defense, of course.

When word got back to Hubert and the rest, they laughed.

* * *

Working through the French Consulate, in cooperation with the United States State Department, all of the kidnap victims, except for Aelita, Yumi, Milly and Tamiya, were transported home. The celebration when they arrived at the airport in Paris was televised world wide.

Aelita, Yumi, Milly and Tamiya returned home with Detective Fiorentini and the boys. They all returned to Sin City quietly, so as not to raise any notice. They stayed at Kadie's for a few days, healing in the company of friends and loved ones.

Then the parting came.

They drove out to Sacred Oaks and made to board the plane Hubert chartered. Hubert said goodbye to Momo, who was returning to Tokyo, and promised the man he and his daughter Yumi would visit in the autumn.

Yumi Ishiyama hugged and kissed her friend Miho. The look on the young woman's face told Yumi what she couldn't say, _I'll miss you._ As they turned to board, Miho stopped Ulrich. He turned to her and she handed him two swords, a long sword and short sword. His eyes widened at the gift, then solemnly took them and bowed to her. He then turned and boarded the jet.

Milly and Tamiya were in tears because Marv wasn't going with them.

"But you can stay in the cabin, just like you were!" Milly said through her tears, "don't you like us anymore?"

"Of course I do," he replied, trying to hold back his own tears, "I love you both. But this is my home, and these are my friends too. I left because of a misunderstanding, and now that's been cleared up. And you can't wait to see your parents again, can you? Well, my mom lives here, and I can't just leave her all alone, can I?"

"No," Milly said, "but could you come see us one day? Bring your mom?"

"Sure, kid," he said, "I could do that."

The two girls, satisfied with that, gave Marv one last hug and joined the others on the plane. Marv wiped a tear from his eye then turned to Aelita, standing next to Jeremie.

"So, Pinkie, I guess this is it. I guess if anything good came out of this, it's you got past your boyfriend problems."

Aelita laughed as she blushed. "I guess you could say that. Will we ever see you again, Marv?"

"Well, you just can never tell," he replied, "I never thought I'd leave this place once I got out of the military and look what happened. But there's no law that says you can't come back and visit some day, if you've a mind to."

"For you, anything," she replied. She then reached up and pulled him down and kissed him. When she finished, she told him, "take care of them, Marv, and let them take care of you. You aren't as ugly and evil as you think you are."

The pink haired girl then turned, slipping her arm around her love, and boarded the plane for home.


	21. To Tarnished Angels

Warning: Rated for language, violence and adult behavior.

The main characters of this story are based on characters from the cartoon 'Code Lyoko.' I do not own, nor do I claim, any copyright to these characters.

This story also uses characters from the graphic novel 'Sin City' by Frank Miller. I do not own, nor do I claim, any copyright to these characters.

This story also uses characters from the movie 'Wasabi', directed by Luc Besson. I do not own, nor do I claim, any copyright to these characters.

References to 'The Goon' in this story do not refer to the character of 'The Goon' by Eric Powell.

* * *

It took a while, but all of the girls that had been abused by the slavers eventually healed.

The young girls bounced back faster than the older ones had. They hadn't been abused like the older girls were, so they only had to deal with the fear of being kidnapped by strangers again. Time and youth, along with counseling, eased those fears.

In the case of the older girls, the healing took much longer, years in some cases. The time on that freighter exposed them to more depravity than one could experience in ten lifetimes. All of them had problems with intimacy for a long time.

It was especially hard on Yumi and Ulrich. The incident had finally made Ulrich tell her his feelings toward her, and show them. But as they grew closer, the fear of abuse rose up in her. She would have nightmares of the day they spent beating and raping her, and in some of the darker ones, Ulrich was helping them.

Ulrich did his best to understand, but sometimes was still upset over her reactions. He was only a teenager, and feeling his own hormonal upheavals, and at times Yumi's rejection of his advances hurt him deeply. But he kept what she had gone through in his mind, and when his impatience threatened to get the better of him, he just reminded himself that he wasn't the one raped over and over again, and to cut her a wide swath of slack. Time and counseling helped them both, and the day they finally came together was joyous.

Aelita had some different problems than the other girls. She was ashamed of herself, not for what the slavers made her do, but for what she did to the boss and the photographer at the end. Not an hour after telling XANA that there was hope for mankind, she went and proved XANA right. She took her revenge on them in the most hateful way she could think of; she stood there and watched them as they started to burn, and felt no guilt over it. She wasn't ashamed of what she did, she was ashamed that she wasn't ashamed of it.

She also had another problem to deal with. When the slavers forced her to pose for those pictures, and threatened to kill Yumi, Milly and Tamiya if she didn't convince them she was enjoying it, Aelita awoke a part of her she wasn't ready to handle yet, her libido. In the end, she did enjoy the pleasure she gave herself, she enjoyed believing it was Jeremie doing those things with her. But she realized she was still was a child in a lot of ways, and unprepared to handle the full force of this passion. And she realized that Jeremie wasn't ready to handle it either. So she kept some distance between her and Jeremie, and kept herself under iron control. At first he was upset, but she explained her fears to him, and when he told her he could handle it, she told him in exacting detail what the slavers made her do, what she felt, and who she was thinking of. She then asked the genius if he was ready to fulfill her fantasies, right then, right there? He blushed and got the message.

Even XANA had reason to contemplate. Aelita's words still resonated in its memory, _because you came half way around the world to save me too_. XANA reviewed its actions, every decision it made leading to Aelita's rescue, and could find nothing that was inconsistent with its mission to destroy mankind. Yet the culmination of its actions was to not only see to the safe return of Aelita and her Keys, but also the other hostages. It even bypassed an opportunity to eliminate one of its opponents. Each decision point was clearly defined, and each decision totally logical. But yet the outcome was one XANA would have never allowed under any other circumstances.

It was only much later, after XANA finally obtained Aelita's Keys to Lyoko, that XANA learned of what the girl did just after XANA left. This whole incident had caused the program to experience many new sensations, and this was no different, shock. Even without Aelita telling it about the goodness of mankind, XANA never once doubted _her_ goodness. When it experienced what she did to the boss of the slavers, it knew that its original decision to destroy mankind was the right one. Mankind truly did not deserve to exist if they were capable of corrupting even one such as Aelita.

Odd found a different way to cope with his pain.

* * *

It was three months after they had returned from Sin City. Odd Della Robbia and Hubert Fiorentini sat in Principal Delmas' office, outlining a proposal Odd had worked up.

"What I would like to do sir is build a memorial commemorating the rescue of the girls," the purple clad boy said.

"It's a fine idea," replied Mr. Delmas, "but why here? What do the other survivors think?"

"There's no other place that wants to have it," Odd said sadly.

"I have approached the other girls on behalf of Mr. Della Robbia,' Hubert said, "and they all love the idea. None of them objected to the school being its location, as long as it is in a public place, so your agreement is all we need."

"And who will pay for it," Jean-Pierre said, "the school certainly can't, though I wish we could."

"Cost will not be a problem," Hubert replied, "I will cover the cost."

Mr. Delmas agreed and the project began.

It took a year of planning, and a year to construct, but the memorial was finally completed.

On the day it was dedicated, the Lyoko Gang turned out in force, including their parents. Even XANA joined them, from the shadows. Hubert Fiorentini and his daughter Yumi came, along with Momo, all the way from Tokyo. And they got a surprise, though it was a bittersweet one. Gail, Miho, Nancy Callahan and Kadie came from Basin City for the unveiling. When Aelita asked where Marv was, Gail told her that he died, executed for killing the ones responsible for murdering some of the girls in Old Town, one of them his lover.

The memorial consisted of four obelisks, three small ones and a large one. The three small ones were topped by little cherubs playing with mermaids. The inscription had each girl's name who was murdered and the caption, _torn from our midst too soon._

The tall obelisk was topped by an angel, wings outstretched and holding up a sword. The angel was made of tarnished brass. When the contractor said he was going to clean it up, he was told to leave it as it was. The inscription briefly described what had happened, and gave a simple dedication:

"_To The Tarnished Angels Watching Over Us"_


End file.
